


Two For Two

by Jarl_Deathwolf



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akuma Attack, Akuma Battle, Angst, Dragon Ladybug Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Dragonbug, Dragon Miraculous, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Happy Ending, Identity Reveal, Kwami & Miraculous Lore, Ladynoir July, Original Akuma, Post Season 3, Post-Episode: s03 Miracle Queen (The Battle of the Miraculous Part 2), Potions, Snake Chat Noir Adrien Agreste | Snake Noir, Snake Miraculous, Spoilers, There are lots of akuma battles in this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:34:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 32,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25021732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jarl_Deathwolf/pseuds/Jarl_Deathwolf
Summary: After the events of Miracle Queen, Ladybug and Chat Noir find that their pool of allies has gone dry. With no help coming, Ladybug decides that they will simply have to become stronger to compensate. Enter the permanent arrival of Dragonbug and Snake Noir.But they'll need more than just extra potions and another pair of miraculous if they're going to take on what Hawkmoth has in store for them...
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 619
Kudos: 498





	1. The Wall Between Us

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my Ladynoir July story - Two For Two! As you might have seen from the summary, this will be a story focusing on Dragonbug and Snake Noir, plus our heroes using all the potions they have at their disposal. There are going to be a whole lot of akumas as Hawkmoth ramps up his attacks on Paris, but in the end this is a story about two partners becoming something more and overcoming the odds to save Paris. 
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy!

Ladybug paced on the rooftop, nervously playing with her yoyo. It was going to be their first patrol after that entire Miracle Queen mess, the last remainder of their old schedule before everything suddenly changed. Not that anything major had happened _yet_. But it was only a matter of time.

In her last year and a half of being a superhero, she’s always had a fairly clear sense of direction. Even if it was just fighting the occasional akuma that Hawkmoth would send out, she knew what was expected of her. Things had gotten clearer, if more complicated, when she met Master Fu, but now he was gone. 

Now it was all down to her. And she was no closer to bringing Hawkmoth to justice than when he’d first challenged them as a head made of butterflies in front of the Eiffel Tower.

She had a moment of warning - the sound of metal toed boots landing on the rooftop - before Chat Noir interrupted her thought process. 

“Hey, bugaboo. I-” She turned around and his words died in his throat. “Ladybug? Are you okay?”

“No!” Ladybug said before she could stop herself. She slumped to the ground, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them. 

Her partner winced. “Okay, okay, that was a stupid question.” He took a seat beside her. “But, it can’t be all bad, right? We stopped Hawkmoth’s evil plan.”

“For now, sure,” Ladybug began. “But he knows all the identities of our allies. We can’t call on them again.”

“Just like we couldn’t call on Chloe again, right.”

“And Master Fu is gone! Now _I’m_ the last Guardian.”

“That doesn’t sound like such a bad thing.” Chat Noir tapped his chin. “You’re bound to be able to protect the miraculous better since you are a hero in her prime.” His eyes widened. “Wait, you can still make the cheeses, right?”

“Well, they’re potions that I put into cheeses for you, but-”

“See? Maybe you’ll even figure out new stuff! Since you aren’t as stuck in tradition or paranoia like Master Fu was.” 

“That’s a pretty big ‘maybe’, Chat,” she grumbled. She put her head down on her knees.

“Listen, I know this is a lot of extra pressure on you. And I know you probably can’t share much of it, just like you couldn’t before. But!” An arm wrapped around her shoulders. “That’s not going to get between us. I’m going to be here with you one hundred percent, all the way. And that’s a _purr_ omise.”

She smirked at the tired old pun and lifted her head, looking into Chat’s bright green cat eyes. A revelation struck her like lightning, electrifying her. She might not be able to have a lot of allies, but maybe that’s not what they needed now that Hawkmoth was ramping up his attacks. 

“What’s going on in your head, love bug?” Chat looked at her as she stood up suddenly. 

“Hang on, I’ll be back in just a minute.”

The journey to her house and back took a little more than a minute. When he saw her swinging back over to him, Chat stood up.

“What was all that-” He stopped and blinked when she held out a black box. “Is that…?”

“The snake miraculous, yes. I’ll use the Dragon miraculous too.”

Chat cocked his head to the side, but kept glancing at the box. His tail swished back and forth behind him eagerly. “Shouldn’t we just find new wielders?”

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from these big moves by Hawkmoth, it's that how many allies we have doesn’t matter. Inexperienced part-timers get mind controlled or taken out or turned against us too easy.”

“Hey, they do alright!”

“Yes,” Ladybug said begrudgingly. “Against standard akuma that we need a little help with, they do great. But Scarlet Hawkmoth? Miracle Queen? Their inexperience made hard fights even harder.”

“So your answer is to…?” He glanced down at the box being held toward him again, lingering there.

“We make a great team, and we’re good at what we do. Our pool of allies has dried up. The next best thing we can do is use two miraculous at once. Its the only way we can keep up with Hawkmoth now.”

“Hm… Okay. On one condition.”

Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “Condition, chaton?”

“I want you to give me the speech.”

Her eyebrows furrowed. “The speech?”

“You know! The whole, ‘so and so forth, you will use this miraculous for the greater good’. That thing.” His ears and tail dropped. “When I got _my_ miraculous, there were no righteous speeches or anything. Just a cheese-hungry cat.”

Ladybug sighed but smiled. At least his sense of humor was intact.

“Alright, alright.” She cleared her throat, putting on a serious face. “Chat Noir, here is the miraculous of the Snake, which grants the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good. You’ll be holding onto it for a while.”

Chat Noir took the box with great solemness, but his swishing tail betrayed his excitement. “I won’t let you down, Ladybug!” He smirked. “Or should I call you Dragonbug?”

She snorted. “Only if you let me call you Snake Noir.”

“Hm… we’ll get back to that.”


	2. Stargazing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya and the gang react to the first sightings of Dragonbug and Snake Noir.

Marinette jolted when Alya dropped her bag on the desk. In the silence of the mostly empty library, it had been especially unexpected. As the three of them looked at her, she simply grinned back, excitement clear on her face.

“Have you guys checked out the Ladyblog lately?”

Nino tugged down his cap, Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, and Marinette suddenly became very interested in her notebook. Naturally, they all tried to support her blog but Alya was a force to be reckoned with. Blog posts came out too frequently for them to read. 

“Chill, guys, this isn’t an interrogation.” Alya sat down beside Marinette and pushed up her glasses. “But you’ve _got_ to check this one out.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket, quickly brought something up on it and pushed it toward them. “Look!”

Marinette craned her neck. Her eyes widened when she saw a few dark pictures of her and her partner on patrol. Except at that moment, it wasn’t Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

“Woah!” Nino whistled appreciatively. “That’s pretty legit. They sorta look like LB and the cat man, but with even snazzier suits.”

There was a moment of confusion before Marinette remembered this was probably the first time anyone had seen Dragon Bug and Snake Noir. Their only other outing had been in the big fight against Hawkmoth, but the entire city had been mind controlled at once. There wasn’t anyone paying attention or taking pictures besides their enemies during that fight.

“What _I_ want to know is why they’re taking on two at once,” Alya said, frowning at the picture. “If they’re doing this now, what does that mean for the heroes we see every now and again?”

Alya glanced meaningfully at Nino. Adrien’s eyes widened, no doubt sympathizing with the part time heroes. But he didn’t even know the half of it.

Only Marinette and Chat Noir knew the truth - that Hawkmoth had unmasked all the other heroes. They would never get to use the miraculous again. 

“I’m sure they have a reason,” Adrien said quietly, his fingers tapping against the table. 

“Yeah! And I bet that Ladybug will fill them in sooner or later.”

“We’d better hope she does it soon then, girl.” Alya shook her head as she looked across the room to where Chloe was studying. Or, more accurately, where Sabrina was doing the studying for her while she polished her nails. “Otherwise, queeny over there might just flip her lid. And she gets really annoying when she’s an akuma.”

You’re more right than you know, Marinette thought to herself as she glared at Chloe.


	3. In Denial

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya races to watch the latest akuma battle.

One of the good things that came out of Alya’s times as Rena Rouge was a newfound passion for parkour. Something which was coming in handy now as she struggled to keep up with the akuma of the day. An akuma which had to be one of the strangest she’d seen yet.

The akuma’s appearance wasn’t all that weird - she’d seen something similar up close with the Pharaoh, way back when. No, it was her goals and powers. Whereas the Pharaoh got powers loosely based on what Jalil thought were the domains of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, the Queen got… the power to transform everywhere she passed with her river barge into a recreation of ancient Egypt. 

Specifically, she wanted to become Queen of some river in Egypt that Alya was blanking on the name of right now. _Why_ this could possibly be her goal was something she'd have to ask for the Ladyblog once the lady was deakumatized. For now, she was just keeping ahead of the barge and it’s magical effect. Staying on the rooftops kept her away from the horde of Parisians turned Egyptian peasants. 

Thankfully, the Seine wasn’t exactly a raging river, so it wasn’t too difficult to stay in front of the Queen. And that meant she had plenty of time to catch her breath and get good footage while she did it. 

An excited grin spread across her face when the barge’s already slow crawl was brought to a standstill as the surface of the river broke. A tidal wave carried two familiar figures - with some changes. While the silhouette was distinctly Ladybug, the trident was a dead give away that something was off, something which became clearer as she noticed the color scheme and fins.

Likewise, while Chat Noir’s ears and tail were there, he now had a full mask hiding his hair and like Ladybug sported fins. The crazy thing was that they were even more coordinated than they usually were. Or at least Chat was - it was almost like he could predict Ladybug’s moves ahead of time and react just right to get the biggest bang for his euro. 

All in all, it was going better than their last couple of frontal attacks on the Queen, which ended up with them being driven off by her army. This time though, the tidal wave that carried them out of the water and onto the Queen’s barge had also swept away her servants. 

The two on one fight proved to be too much for the Queen. The scepter she held was broken and a butterfly fluttered out. A quick purification later and Paris was back to its usual self. 

Well, mostly. Alya was still on a rooftop, after all. Which reminded her…

“Hey, Ladybug!” Her hero’s head turned toward her and even from this distance she could see her eyes widened. “How about an interview for the Ladyblog?” Alya pointed at her phone, nodding and grinning wildly. 

Ladybug put her hand to her face, but after a few moments of talking with the deakumatized civilian, she and Chat Noir were leaping over to her. 

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head when they landed and said:

“Claws in.”

“Spots off.”

But contrary to what she had expected, this just seemed to turn off the aquatic aspects of their designs. Flippers vanished, designs changed, and Ladybug’s trident turned into a sword. The last caused Alya to raise her eyebrows. She had thought that was her lucky charm, but apparently not.

“Alya, there’s something I need to tell you,” Ladybug said as she covered Alya’s phone. She could take a hint and turned off the recording. Ladybug glanced toward Chat Noir, who nodded and put a reassuring hand on Ladybug’s shoulder. 

“Uh, okay?” Alya glanced between them. “I don’t like the vibe of this. You two look like you’re about to tell me my dog died or something.”

“Or something,” Ladybug said with a sigh. “You can’t be Rena Rouge any more.”

A pit opened up in Alya’s stomach. “W-what?! But - Chloe gets to be Queen Bee sometimes! And I’m _way_ better at this than she is!”

“You’re not wrong, but she isn’t going to be Queen Bee either. She got akumatized a couple weeks ago and mind controlled everyone in the city. In the end, your identity and the identity of every other hero in Paris was revealed. Except for Chat and I.”

“I… see…” Alya slouched in place. Being Rena Rouge had never been a huge part of her life, but knowing that she would never get to be her again… it hurt. 

“I’m sorry. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” Ladybug said, and Alya had no doubts that she meant it. 

“No, I get it.” Alya sniffled and brushed away the nascent tears. She forced a wide smile. “Don’t worry! I’ll do whatever I can to help you out, miraculous or not. Hawkmoth isn’t about to stop me from doing what’s right!”

Ladybug smirked. “Trust me, I know. Stay safe, Ms Ladyblogger.”

They were about to leave when Alya said, “Wait!” They turned back and Alya nearly lost her nerve. “I’m just… could you tell Trixx I said goodbye? I never got to tell him myself.”

“I think that can be arranged.” Chat looked at Ladybug and smiled.

Ladybug waved and Chat gave her a quick salute and soon the two of them had left her on the city street.

Alya watched them go with a frown. As sad as she was about not being Rena Rouge any more, she felt for those two even more. How were they going to rise to the challenge if they didn’t have anyone they bring in to lend a hand?

Then she thought about it some more. A vicious smile spread across her face. Knowing Ladybug and Chat Noir, it was _Hawkmoth_ who was going to have to cry for help first. 


	4. Disguises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragonbug and Snake Noir use the purple potion to take down today's akuma.

“Snake Noir! Pull back!” Dragonbug shouted as she backflipped. A laser beam melted the road where she had just been standing. 

A shadow on the ground pulled her attention back up, where her partner was quickly getting out of reach of today’s akuma. It resembled some sort of tripod machine, with what looked like a big camera lens on the front. But instead of taking pictures, it swivelled toward them and battered them with energy rays.

Snake Noir twisted in the air, seemingly for no reason. Another of the lasers tore through the space he had just been, making her wince. Had he taken that full blast and reset? 

Once they were on the ground and ducking between the buildings for cover, she asked him, “How many times have you had to use Second Chance?”

“I think it’s been… six resets? Maybe seven. Mostly for little stuff so far, don’t worry.” He shook his head. “But let me worry about that. What’s the plan for taking that freak out?”

Dragonbug poked her head around the corner. The tripod was a few streets over, but it wasn’t hard to miss since it was twice the height of the buildings around it. Almost immediately, the lens snapped toward her and she had to quickly pull back behind cover. 

“I’m not sure…” She hefted a volleyball net whose threads were black and red. “We can’t get close enough to use my lucky charm and shatter that lens. Unless…” Dragonbug tapped at her chin. 

“Scales rest!” The teal highlights and bald cap vanished, leaving her partner’s old suit in place. He pulled out some cheese from his pocket to feed Sass. “Unless what?”

“We could use one of the potions. Do you have the cheese on you?” 

“Yeah, I’ve got ‘em.” Chat pulled out a compact disk with a rainbow wheel of dyed cheeses inside. “What power up were you thinking?”

“I was thinking of using the purple one.”

Chat nodded. “Cool, cool. And that does…?”

“Oh, sorry. It lets us become invisible at will. Plus we become a lot quieter too.”

“Already getting tired of my puns, my lady?” Chat gave a fanged grin to take the bite out of his teasing.

She laughed. “Always, chaton. Although I’m at least glad that you haven’t just been relying on the usual cat puns lately.”

“The snake miraculous has opened so many new doors for me! How could I _not_ expand my horizons?”

“He ssstayed up until the early hoursss of the morning in resssearch for his arsssenal,” Sass said with a smirk. 

Chat crossed his arms and pouted. “Traitor.”

“Anyway, you’ll need to find a place to detransform so you can feed Plagg. Call me when you’ve fed him the purple cheese.”

“Huh?” Chat made a confused face, one of his ears drooping as he tilted his head to the side. “Why can’t I just fed Sass?”

“The Guardian isss correct,” Sass said, crossing his legs in the air. “At the moment, Plagg isss your dominant kwami. Any potionsss I imbibe will be lost. At least until you become more intune with my powersss.”

Chat glanced toward Dragonbug, who shrugged. “He’s right. Now go find a hidey hole, kitty, and met back up with me later. We’ve got an akuma to take down.”

\------------

Maybe it was just exhaustion with her day to day clothes, but the part of her stealth suit that Dragonbug liked the most was the extra pockets. Sure, the black that gleamed red, masks that covered her entire face, and knee-high boots were great, but the pockets… the pockets were just viscerally satisfying. 

Dragonbug glanced at the map on her yoyo and looked back up. It looked like Snake Noir was in position, but she couldn’t see him. She nodded. That proved that the purple potion was working perfectly. 

At least, it worked on them. She turned toward the laser eyed akuma, even now marching through the streets, scanning for them. Now was the true test. 

Leaving her doubt behind, she broke into a sprint across the rooftop. Her feet didn’t make a sound as they beat against the tiles. She had time for a small smile to cross her face before she reached inside for the power of the Dragon miraculous. 

“Lightning dragon!” She shouted the command, but it sounded no louder than a whisper to her ears, a whisper that was immediately brushed aside by the wind. But it was enough for Longg and Dragonbug now found herself holding a javelin of electricity in her hand, which she pulled back. In one motion, she threw the bolt of lightning and it sunk into the tripod.

Spasms gripped the mechanical akuma, which signalled the next part of their attack. Her yoyo latched onto it and she spun in circles around the akuma like a maypole, quickly entangling its legs with the volleyball net. The moment she was done, she felt a powerful strike connect with the akuma and it went tumbling backwards, collapsing onto the streets.

There was a moment of stillness, an unnatural quiet. The lens shattered, its frame rusting into nothingness. A purple butterfly floated out. 

Willing the invisibility off, Dragonbug snatched the akuma out of the air with her yoyo and purified it. She bunched up the net and tossed it into the air, where it exploded into a mass of her namesakes. 

Snake Noir suddenly appeared by her side - literally emerging from thin air, which made her jump. Much like her, his suit was mostly black with a mask that covered his face, but whereas hers at least had some accents, his was matte black. It almost liked like it absorbed light, making the area around him a little darker. 

She couldn’t see his expression, but just from his eyes she knew he was grinning. “I think I’m going to like using these extra powers.”


	5. Banter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Late night sparring sessions between two heroes learning everything all over again.

Miraculous metal clashed against miraculous metal. The moon lent its gentle illumination to that of the streetlamps, whose light barely reached the two sparring partners.

“While _you_ were studying puns, _I_ studied the blade!” Dragonbug lunged, hoping to slip past Snake Noir’s guard, but he gently deflected the strike with his staff and stepped to the side all in one smooth motion.

True to his word, he hadn’t taken his hand out from behind his back the whole time. A grin spread across his face as he took in her irritated pout. 

“While _you_ were studying the blade, _I_ was practicing fencing.” He gave her a wink and settled into a combat stance. “Maybe you’d like some _points,_ my lady?”

“No, I don’t think so. After all, I’m a _cut_ above the rest.” She approached more cautiously this time, trying to plan out her best move. Just as she thought she’d figured something out, Snake Noir rushed her. She only barely held onto her sword. 

“Aw, you didn’t drop it.” Snake Noir’s ears drooped. “I had a great pun set up about you losing your _edge_.”

“I’d say hold onto it, but you won’t be getting it out of my hands.” She stuck out her tongue at him. “So you may as well forget it.”

Snake Noir rolled his eyes and smiled. He began walking around her. “Seriously though, do you want some tips? I’ve been fencing for a while.”

“I don’t think fighting with a staff counts as fencing, chaton.”

“There IS staff fencing, but I’m not talking about that.” He stopped in front of her and took a strong stance, his hands on the top of his staff, now extended to waist height. “I’m talking about in my civilian life. I’ve fenced for a few years. I like to think I’m pretty good at it.”

“I’m sure you do,” Dragonbug said with a smirk.

Snake Noir pouted. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh nothing. Just that _maybe_ you have an overinflated sense of your own abilities?” She smirked, a teasing edge to her voice as she raised an eyebrow at him challengingly. 

Snake Noir looked unimpressed. “If you want me to use both hands to help me hand you your own butt in a sword fight, then you can say it.”

“The only one getting their butt kicked today is you, chaton.”

Dragonbug took a stance that felt right, but she was woefully unprepared for the all out assault Snake Noir unleashed. There was no room for strategy and before long she was wheeling backwards on her heels. Which couldn’t go on forever, and didn’t. She could soundly say the fight ended when she tripped backwards, her behind hitting the roof and her sword clattering outside her reach.

She was about to reach for it anyway when his baton pushed her chin up. She looked up at his face and raised an unamused eyebrow.

“Looks like you lost your _edge_.”

She groaned. 

“Seriously, though.” He offered her a hand and pulled her to her feet. “Let me help you, bugaboo.”

“Okay, okay. What’ve you got for me?”

For the remainder of their “patrol”, Snake Noir gave Dragonbug a crash course in sword fighting. To her surprise, he actually did seem to know what he was talking about. When they finally - and reluctantly - went their separate ways for the night, she was feeling much more secure in her use of the sword. 


	6. Rose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes save Rose from the roses

Dragonbug dashed through the streets, doing her best to avoid the grasping thorn-covered vines as thick as her arm while still keeping her grip on a terrified Rose. At least she had Snake Noir watching her back - if it weren’t for him and his baton, she’d have been snared a dozen times over already. 

While she wasn’t exactly sure what they’d do once they had grabbed her, she’d seen them crush _cars_ in their grasp in this fight already, tossed at the heroic duo as if they were children’s toys. She didn’t want to take her chances.

The street opened up a little more and once she felt like she wasn’t running through some enchanted forest from a fairytale, Dragonbug placed Rose on the ground and glanced over her shoulder.

“So what’s got the rose after Rose?” Snake Noir said as he landed beside them. 

The description was over simplified, but fitting. The akuma of the day was a gigantic plant monster, hundreds of meters of greenery sprawling over the section of the city. All of it leading up to a colossal red rose whose petals she could almost believe formed the shape of a face. 

“I, well, I’m super entirely sure, but it might be this boy that I see sometimes in the halls?” Rose poked her index fingers together bashfully. “He tried to ask me out, and while he’s pretty sweet, I’m already going out with this girl and, um…” She winced as she looked toward the monster.

“Don’t worry, Rose,” Dragonbug said as she gave the other girl a patient smile before drawing her sword to cut back the vines. “We aren’t responsible for how others feel. If it weren’t for Hawkmoth, I’m sure he’d still be sad, but he would have gotten over it.”

“What sucks is that with Hawkmoth everywhere, just a moment of letting our guard down is enough for that-” Snake Noir gestured toward the rose-based monster, “to happen.”

Dragonbug looked Rose in the eye. “Can you tell us anything that might help us save him? Like, what his akumatized object might be?”

“I don’t know about- Oh!” Her big blue eyes suddenly widened. “He had gotten me this really pretty pink rose! He had the thorns removed and everything.” She scrunched her face in concentration. “I think he tucked it behind his ear as he was leaving?”

“Hm…” Dragonbug tapped at her chin, staring up at the monster. She turned back toward her partner. “Do you think you can get up to his face and start looking around? With your Second Chance, I think you’ll have the best odds of finding it without getting hurt from being so close to him.”

Snake Noir nodded. “Sure! What’re you going to do?”

“I’ll stay out here by the fringes.” Dragongbug sheathed her sword and pulled Rose close to her. “I’ll keep Rose safe and try to draw its attention as much as I can.”

\------------

While the power of Second Chance was super helpful, it didn’t actually help Snake Noir climb or search - it just meant he got a free do over if he needed it. That all meant that he spent hours searching for the best route up the akuma, plus a few resets to get himself out of some hairy situations. 

From an outside perspective, though, it only took him a few minutes. 

As he leapt from giant thorn to giant thorn, he expertly batted away vines even before he should have been aware of them, making a beeline for the increasingly-panicked akuma. Nothing he could do could stop Snake Noir, though, and soon enough he was right behind the titanic petals making up the akuma’s face. A quick precision Cataclysm later and a gorgeous but regular sized pink rose was freed from the vines holding it to the akuma. 

He slid down the vines towards the last place he’d spotted his lovely lady. Naturally, she had noticed him first and met him halfway. 

“Great job!” She gave him a winning smile and set down Rose once again. The poor girl was looking a little worse for wear from all the swinging around. “Let’s break it so we can purify the akuma.”

Snake Noir fell down to one knee and took her hand. She blinked down at him in confusion. 

“For you, my lady.” He gently slipped the pink rose into her hand, moving her fingers to close around it.

Dragonbug rolled her eyes, but he could see the way her lips tugged over so slightly. She was definitely fighting a smile. On the brightside, at least there was one onlooker that appreciated the romance of the moment.

“That’s so cute!” Rose cooed in delight.

After frowning at it for a few moments, Dragonbug tentatively snapped the stem. It seemed to work, or at least scare the akuma out. A quick purification later and the city was put back to normal. Snake Noir held out his fist, and Dragonbug eagerly bumped it.

“Pound it!”


	7. Interview

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes consent to a couple interviews to help answer questions.

Snake Noir leaned forward to grab one of the snacks they had laid out for them before the show started. On the one hand, he didn’t want to eat too much since he’d be doing most of the talking today, but on the other hand, whenever he did these sorts of things as Adrien - which he did a _lot_ \- they never let him eat anything. 

While he took a big bite out of the pastry, he glanced to his left where Dragonbug was sitting. They had both done these sorts of interviews in the past, but they weren’t all that common. He could tell by the way she was sitting up unnaturally straight, hands in her lap, that she wasn’t feeling all that relaxed about this interview. 

Maybe that was part of the reason she had asked him to do most of the talking this time around? Or it could really have been what she had given as an excuse - that he didn’t know a lot of the details, so he couldn’t accidentally say more than they had intended to. Either way, Snake Noir didn’t mind. What mattered was that he was helping his lady. 

“Welcome! I’ve been hoping I’d see you two back on my show again.” Nadja Chamack arrived, giving them a pleasant smile as she took a seat opposite them. Her eyes tracked over the newest elements of their suits. 

“Let’s hope this time goes a little bit better,” Dragonbug said with a smirk.

Nadja laughed. “Oh, don’t worry about me. I think my producers learned from last time not to push superheroes around.”

“Good to hear,” Snake Noir said. “Expecting a big turn out for tonight?”

“Paris has a lot of questions for the two of you, so I’m sure everyone will be even more excited than usual to see you.” Nadja put her finger to her ear, listening. She nodded and looked back at them. “Are you two ready?” 

“As I’ll ever be.”

“Ready to start right _meow_!” 

Nadja nodded again, a faint smile on her lips. She made a gesture toward the crew and the lights dimmed. There was a pause as the show’s theme played. Lights flared back to life and the cameras began rolling. 

Nadja’s voice took on a distinct tone as she switched into ‘news anchor’ mode and addressed the invisible audience.

“Good evening! I’m Nadja Chamack and this is Face to Face!” She turned to face them. “And for the second time in our show’s history, I’m glad to welcome back the beloved guardians of Paris - Ladybug and Chat Noir! Hello!”

The two of them waved to the camera. 

“It’s a pleasure to be here, Nadja!”

“Yeah!” Snake Noir agreed. “We’re sure the lovely people of Paris are curious about what’s going on with us.”

“There is no doubt about that!” She adjusted the tablet on her lap. “Now, before the show started I shared a list of questions. Where would you like to start, Ladybug and Chat Noir?”

“Well, let’s start there - for the time being, I’ll be going by Snake Noir as long as my suit looks like this.”

“Yes, and I’ll be going by Dragonbug.”

It was a great start to their formal interview, but after an hour of questions covering everything from their mysterious new powers and the potions - both of which they had to be fairly vague about - to more minor questions like personal favorite akumas and their opinions on the fighting game recently released that centered around them.

Even Snake Noir’s energy for running interviews was getting low by the time the show was nearly over. 

“I can tell you two are getting tired, but bear with me! Just one last question before the two of you go.” Nadja smiled and glanced down at her tablet. “Observers have noticed that the frequency and power of Hawkmoth’s akumas have been increasing. What are your opinions on your odds of unmasking Hawkmoth in that context?”

“It doesn’t matter if Hawkmoth is getting stronger. Even if Hawkmoth turns the whole city against us,” Snake Noir said with conviction, “We’ll still win the day and bring him down!”

\-----------------------

A few days later and Dragonbug was meeting for another interview. This time it was in a much less formal - and more familiar - environment.

“Thanks for coming, you two!” Alya grinned as she locked the door to her room. 

Alya took a seat opposite them, all three chairs placed in front of a big green screen attached to a roller in the ceiling, not unlike the one that Dragonbug had in her room for schedules. 

“Always a pleasure, miss Ladyblogger,” Dragonbug replied. “We’ve got something important to say, but it's also not something that needed to be said on mainstream television.”

“Oh I totally get it, LB.” Alya winked. “Besides, anyone who really cares about all this is probs following the Ladyblog anyway.”

“That’s exactly what I’m counting on.” Dragonbug crossed her arms. “This is going to be partially a message to everyone like you - who had a chance to be a hero, but had it taken from them by Hawkmoth.”

“Plus we’re going to give you the details about that whole mess with Miracle Queen,” Snake Noir added.

“Oh…” Alya sagged in her seat a little. “Dang. I guess I forgot that everyone else wouldn’t get to join up too. Well,” she added, “I did tell Nino.” She glanced up hesitantly at the two of them. “If that’s alright?”

“Of course!” Dragonbug nodded. “I figured that might be the case. And besides, he’ll have found out either way today, right?”

“Right. So… which one of you is going to lay this all out?” Alya glanced at Snake Noir, who held up his hands in front of him.

“No, no. My lady is a much better storyteller than me.”

“Fair enough.” Alya reached over toward her camera. “You ready then?”

Dragonbug sighed. “Not really, but let’s get this over with. They deserve to know.”

Alya nodded and pressed the button. 

For the next twenty minutes, Dragonbug did her best to give a good recap of everything that went down with the Miracle Queen battle. Alya set the stage with the details that the public knew about - the akuma just before Miracle Queen, the sudden blackout that no one could account for. 

The only thing Dragonbug didn’t mention was Master Fu and who exactly Miracle Queen was. Which was partially to protect Chloe, but also to deprive her of even more attention. 

By the end of it, she was glad to have finally gotten it all off her chest. It might have brought back into focus just how much everything was now resting on her and Chat’s shoulders, but at least now she didn’t have to worry about meeting with the previous heroes one on one and telling them they could never be heroes again.

Not for the first time, she gritted her teeth and looked forward to the day that she could unmask Hawkmoth.


	8. Kwami Swap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir wonders if he's the best choice for the Snake miraculous.

“Do you think I’m a good match for the Snake miraculous?”

Dragonbug turned to look at her partner, who was watching her with a thoughtful frown. 

“You haven’t given me a reason to think you aren’t.” She gave him a reassuring smile when he didn’t seem to be as cheered up by that as she would have liked. “Hey, you’re doing great with the Snake miraculous. Who do you think could do a better job with it?”

“What about you?” His question caused her to blink in surprise. “You are more of the thoughtful, consider things very carefully sort of person. And me? Well…” He flexed and gave her a grin. “I know I’m the muscle behind this operation.”

“While you’re right, I am the brains of this duo,” she said with a wink. “I like this set up a little more. It sort of… balances us out, you know?”

“Oh?” His eyes traveled down to her hips, where her sword was sheathed. “Are you sure its not just that you really like having a straightforward weapon for once?”

“Actually, it is exactly that.” He raised his eyebrows at her. “It's not just about the sword. My entire powerset as Ladybug all deals with indirect solutions - tying up enemies with the yoyo, complicated plans involving the Lucky Charm. That sort of thing.”

“But the Dragon is direct,” he said, finishing her thought. “The water, wind, and electricity is also super flexible while giving you a bunch of added offense.”

“Exactly! I appreciate everything you do and all, but sometimes I need to be able to deal the punches too. And the Dragon miraculous gives me that.”

“I see… And what about the Snake miraculous? How does that balance _me_ out?”

Dragonbug snorted. “Well, if it keeps you from throwing yourself into danger without a care, then I’m all for it.”

“Hey! I-”

“Yes, I know. You do it to save me.” She put a hand on the side of his face. “But it still sucks, chaton. I don’t like watching that happen over and over again.” She leaned back. “Maybe that’ll give you some insight into what I’ve been going through.”

Snake Noir sighed. “More than you know, my lady.” He laid down, his hands behind his back. “I guess I like Second Chance. It’s nice to have something that lets me think things through. A ‘destroy anything’ power makes you want to go rushing forward into the enemy, you know?”

“So you like having the support powers for once?”

“It’s a nice change of pace, sure.” He brought her hand to his lips. “And if it means I’m that much better at keeping you safe, then I’ll take it.”

She rolled her eyes but took her time pulling back her hand. “Silly chaton.”


	9. Fist Bump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another win for our heroes! Now all they need to do is fist bump...

It had been a fairly easy akuma. Sure, they had gotten some bumps and bruises from it, but it was nothing that the Ladybug Cure couldn’t solve. Before that, though, they had one last important matter of business to deal with:

“Pound it!”

Snake Noir held out his fist and watched a satisfied smile cross his lady’s face. She adjusted her hold on the coil of black and red rope to get a hand free. This left a few moments for him to appreciate her in the silence.

Well, mostly silence. There was some sort of electrical hum that was building up, the sound so low that he probably only heard it because of his enhanced Chat Noir senses. Something about it set him immediately on edge and deep in his gut a primal command skipped over his brain entirely and went straight to the muscles:

MOVE!

He lunged forward, tackling Dragonbug while she was still fumbling with the rope. Both of them were pushed out of the way and tumbled gracelessly to the ground. 

“Hey! What’re you-”

Dragonbug was halfway between an angry and surprised expression when it happened. A sound like a sci-fi blaster. Snake Noir looked over his shoulder to see a crater a meter across and half as deep where they had just been. 

That’s when he saw it. A purple haze flickered around a cybernetic body, which lasted a few moments before it completely vanished again. 

“What was that?!” Snake Noir asked, pulling out his baton as the two of them leapt to their feet. 

“I don’t know, but activate your Second Chance!” Dragonbug pulled out her sword and spun her yoyo into a shield, the rope forgotten on the street. “I bet we’ll need it to take whatever it is down.” 

Snake Noir nodded and put his hand on his bracelet, the Snake miraculous. “Second Chance!” As he pushed the slider to its highest point, he asked, “Can Hawkmoth even send multiple akumas?”

“Maybe?” Dragonbug said, a hint of uncertainty to her voice. “I know he stole some of the old Guardian’s things. He could have figured out something to boost his powers.”

The two of them stood at the ready, weapons drawn as they watched carefully for the futuristic enemy to attack again.

It wasn’t long before the first reset was needed. A sudden appearance on their left, behind Dragonbug’s field of view. Then suddenly no Dragonbug. No warning at all, even the hum barely there. 

After the reset, he didn’t waste time with a warning, instead immediately sending his baton toward where it had appeared. It connected with the ray gun, sending the shot wide. Dragonbug whirled around just in time to see the purple field of energy flicker again before it vanished entirely.

“That color is familiar…” Her eyes flew open wide and she cursed. “I think Hawkmoth might have learned how to brew half effective potions.”

“Only half effective?” He began moving around, leaping from post to post. Dragonbug did something similar to stay on the run. 

“If it worked completely, it wouldn’t be fading out like that every time it attacked.”

“So we just need to wait until it attacks and-” Snake Noir was cut off when it reappeared again, sending a blast for Dragonbug. Thanks to her staying moving, it missed her. However barely. “Now!”

He jumped toward it, his baton twirling over his head as he hammered into it. The cyborg brought one arm up to block while the other charged a shot - which Snake Noir had no intention of letting him use. 

“I’ve got him pinned!” Snake glanced over to Dragonbug, who was circling around to its side and waiting for a good moment to charge in. “Bring him down!”

She nodded and sent her yoyo flying. The string anchored onto the arm cannon, keeping it from moving freely and firing at him. It revved up menacingly, but couldn’t move to blast Snake Noir. The divided attention seemed to be doing something to its cloaking abilities since it was flickering in and out of invisibility. 

While Snake Noir was focused on that, the akuma pulled on the string with unexpected strength.

“Gah!” 

Dragonbug didn’t have anything to say beyond that when the ray gun went off and she vanished once again. Snake Noir gritted his teeth and reset the bracelet.

A dozen trials later and he was back in the same position as before - as it turned out, this akuma was much more… efficient than he had given it credit for. They were very close to beating it, but he was running out of options. Dragonbug was too far away to knock out of the way, and he’d be fighting not only the akuma but Dragonbug if he tried to knock the arm cannon out of the way. 

He only had one option as the humming reached its maximum power. An option he knew she wouldn’t approve of, but it was the only one they had.

Just before he moved, he shouted, “The akuma is in the name tag around his neck!”

Her eyes went wide, first with confusion then with horrified realization as she saw him dash between her and the akuma with those few split seconds remaining. There was a blinding light as the flash went off.

Then nothing.

\-------------

Snake Noir’s eyes opened and he immediately had to close them again since he was on his back, looking up at the sun. Sitting up, he rubbed his head and belatedly noticed a man that looked just as confused as Snake Noir felt. 

There wasn’t any time to ruminate on that though, since he immediately had the wind knocked out of him again when Dragonbug body slammed into him. It took him a moment to recognize that she was hugging him.

The idea of saying a joke to take the edge off crossed his mind, but then he realized that she wasn’t even berating him. She had to be really upset then. 

Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and held her until she was satisfied that he was with her again. 


	10. Breakdown

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes feel the emotional repercussions of the last battle.

As much as he wished he was surprised by her reaction, Snake Noir really wasn’t shocked in the least when he arrived for patrol only to face an angry Dragonbug. The words he might be able to let slide off of him, maybe even shoot back with some light teasing to break the tension, but jokes died in his throat when he saw the tears streaming down her face.

“I told you! _I told you!_ I don’t want to ever see you just… just go away like that ever again!” 

Maybe anger hadn’t been the right word. She was upset, but it was only wearing the mask of anger. There was a deeper pain here, so he let her get it out of her system before he responded. Her anguish was being poured into words and it went on uninterrupted for whole minutes. Until... 

“I’m done with it! Do you know how terrifying it is to watch your partner…” Her mouth refused to say the word she wanted, so instead she said, “vanish? How awful it is to suddenly be on your own?”

“Yes,” Snake Noir replied quietly. That stopped her in her tracks and she gave him a questioningly look. He softly tapped his bracelet.

There was a long, pregnant pause. The only sound was the late fall winds whistling through the buildings and bringing the prelude to winter’s chill on them. Her face became a stoic mask.

“How many times.”

“It’s really nothing to worry about-”

“ _How many times did you reset, Chat Noir?”_

“...Twenty six times.”

She let out a breath she was holding, but didn’t untense much at all. “And how many of those times did I…?”

“Twenty three times.”

“Chaton…” She stepped forward and put a hand to his cheek, which he desperately leaned into. “I’m so sorry its ended up like this.”

“There’s nothing we can do.” Snake Noir sighed. “But yeah, it’s a lot.”

Dragonbug snorted. “You’re telling me. I’m only a half-baked Guardian in training that got pushed out into the real world a little too soon.”

A glimmer of mirth crept into his voice. “Like master, like student, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Dragonbug said with a chuckle. “Still, its hard to juggle all those Guardian duties along with being a superhero and an average girl.”

“Somehow, I doubt you are anything but normal.” Snake Noir smirked and took her hand. “Amazing? Absolutely. Stunning? Without question.” He twirled her, to her giggling. “Average? I beg to differ.”

“Still,” Dragonbug insisted as he let go. “It’s a lot.”

“I know.” His smile flickered. “I’m the one that has to watch it burn you out, helplessly.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sure you’d love to help however you can but…” She sighed. “Guardian secrecy and all that.”

“I understand, it just sucks is all.” He sat down on the edge of the roof, his feet dangling over the side. “Maybe if it were just that, but then there’s the extra miraculous…”

“Have you been getting exhausted too?”

“I already was, but now it is even worse.” Snake Noir shook his head and stared at his bracelet. “But I was more talking about coming to grips with my new powers. I feel like I have to keep changing gears in my head.”

Dragonbug nodded. “Yeah… its either I’m in Lucky Charm mode or Elemental Dragon mode. It’s hard to think about how to use them both to their fullest at the same time.”

“Exactly!”

“Still…” She yawned and leaned against him, her head on his shoulder. “I really am exhausted all the time.”

“It’s rough, my lady.” He patted the back of her head and adjusted himself so she was a little more comfortable. “I’m sure we’ll get used to it eventually… right?”

“...Right.”

On that uncertain note, the conversation died out. After enjoying the quiet company for a few minutes, they finally worked up the energy to do a half hearted patrol before heading home and falling asleep. 


	11. Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragonbug explains the potions to Snake Noir.

The exhaustion stuck around for at least the next few weeks, leading to them sitting on top of one of the bell towers of a cathedral. Even as the time came for their patrol to start, they just couldn’t muster the drive to actually start it. With nothing else to do and not wanting to go home just yet, they started to talk.

“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier this month,” Dragonbug began. There was some hesitancy in her voice that Snake Noir picked up on. 

A gust of wind blew through, this one cutting to the bone with its chill. A shiver ran down her spine, which he decided he wouldn’t stand for. He scooted over to her side and pressed their sides close together. She relaxed immediately and leaned towards him, a pleased sigh escaping her lips.

When it became clear she wasn’t going to continue, he prompted, “So you’ve been thinking…?”

“Oh right! Sorry.” She shook her head. “The way I see it, I’m the Guardian now, right? So I make the rules. Which means, if I want to vent about some of this Guardian stuff…”

His cat ears perked up and he smiled. “Well, I _am_ an amazing listener…”

“At least you’ve got that going for you.” She poked his nose. “Ugh, where to start?”

“How about the potions?”

“Curious kitten, aren’t you?”

“It's nice to know what my options are.”

“Yeah I get that. Um… let’s see.” She leaned her head back and looked up at the black and cloudless sky above. “You already know about the blue, green, and purple ones, right?”

“Mhm.” He counted them off on a clawed hand. “Blue is chilly, green is splashy, purple is sneaky.”

Dragonbug giggled. “That’s a way of putting it. So that leaves orange, yellow, pink, and red.”

“I’m going to guess red is for fire?”

“You’ve got it _spot_ on,” she said with a smile at her own joke. “Do you want to guess what yellow does?”

“Um… electricity?”

Dragonbug shook her head. “Remember, these were made by monks hundreds of years ago, based in Tibet. They wouldn’t make power ups to fight things they’d never really encountered before.”

“Good point.” Snake Noir thought about it for a little while before shrugging. “No clue then. Maybe something to do with the sky or the sun?”

“Close!” She gave him an impressed look. “It gives the power of flight. Part of that is being able to breath in places without much air, so it could probably double for space stuff.”

“That’s cool, but I’m going to go ahead and hope that we don’t get launched into space. Yellow potion or not.”

“Well, it’s already happened before.” She shrugged. “It could definitely happen again.”

Snake Noir tilted his head back and groaned. 

“Hey, at least this time we’ve got the potions. Speaking of, I don’t think you’ll be able to guess the other two, but you can try.” She watched as he snapped into a thinking position. “The last two are orange and pink, remember.”

“How about… the ability to get a really bad tan for orange, and… hm… Tibetan… climbing mountains really good for pink?”

Dragonbug laughed. “Not even close, chaton.”

“So what are they then?”

“Orange is like…” Her eyes stared at the horizon and she blew out a breath as she tried to find the right words. “It’s like, it increases the amount of magic you can hold. So you get more uses of your power and the timer lasts a lot longer.”

He whistled appreciatively. “That sounds super helpful.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather we master what we’ve got so far before we try to use that.” She rested her chin on her hand, propped up on her lap. “We’re already struggling to handle the magic we already have.”

“I guess that makes sense,” he said with a sigh as he closed the door on the idea of multiple cataclysms. “Wait, so how many are ‘more uses’?”

“I’m… not super sure? We’d at least have three, but some of the texts say like five or more. I think it depends on how long you’ve had your miraculous, which makes your bond with it stronger.”

“Well, we’ve had ours for like a year and a half. What does that mean for us?”

“There isn’t a chart, chaton. We’d at least have three - _maybe_ more.”

“Still, that’s pretty good, even if we only get the minimum.”

“Exactly what I was thinking.” She clapped her hands once. “Anyway! All that leaves is pink. I’m not super sure on how its spelled but its supposed to grant the powers of true sight. Or maybe truesight, one word.”

“And that means…?”

Dragonbug counted on her fingers. “Enhanced senses-

“Got that.”

“-Darkvision-”

“That too.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “...And the ability to see through illusions.”

“Ooo! Something I don’t have!”

“Not all of the miraculous get better vision and stuff right from the start, Chat.”

“Yeah, not everyone is as awesome as I am,” he replied, flexing.

She rolled her eyes. “Well, it doesn’t matter much anyway because that one is the hardest to make.” She drew her knees up to her chest. “Well, they’ll all be hard to make pretty soon, but the pink potion especially.”

He tilted his head at her. “What do you mean? Why are they going to be harder to make?”

“The potions require specific ingredients and I don’t know where Master Fu got his. I don’t have a huge supply left of them, so I’ll run out eventually. Then poof!” She opened her hands dramatically. “No more potions.”

“Well, it’s like you said. Those potions were made by some guys a long time ago and way far away. I bet with some experimenting you could come up with some half-decent replacements.”

“Maybe…”

“Hey, it’s worth a shot, right? Who knows! Maybe you’ll even discover something new.”


	12. Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sky-high supervillain forces our heroes to use the yellow potion of flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now with fanart at the end! :D

If Hawkmoth was going to repeat akuma ideas, Adrien would prefer if he’d at least repeat the fun ones. Like Gamer 2.0 or Mister Pidgeon. Well, maybe not Mister Pidgeon exactly since Adrien was always sent into sneezing fits for those fights, but still. Something easy or at least fun.

Certainly not being shot into space, like with Startrain or the Bubbler. And yet, that was exactly where Adrien found himself now. Riding a tiny spaceship - almost more a rocket with some cargo space - into the upper atmosphere. 

Adrien shook his head and started digging through his bag.

“Correct me if I am wrong but,” Sass began, looking out the convenient window. “I feel that thisss is not good?”

“Great job, sass, you’ve really nailed it,” Plagg said, rolling his eyes. He crossed his arms and looked at Adrien. “So what’s the plan, kid? I doubt the bug is gonna be able to get you out of this mess.”

“Well, she sort of already did.”

“Huh?”

“Just give me a second… Aha!” He pulled out the container full of dyed cheeses. “Yellow is going to be our best bet, I think.”

“Bleh! Yellow potion tastes awful.” Plagg stuck out his tongue. He grabbed Sass and pushed him towards Adrien. “You’re the new kwami on the block, so you’re gonna have to take this one for me.”

Adrien gave a worried look to Sass who shrugged.

“Worry not, I am sssure you are in harmony enough with me to make full ussse of my powersss.” Sass tentatively took the cheese, his thin forked tongue darting out to taste it. “Hm… It has been some time since I have had some of the Guardians’ brew.”

“Okay, let’s give this a shot…” Adrien cleared his throat. “Plagg, claws out! Sky Sass, Plagg, unify!”

Snake Noir took a moment to stretch his wings and look at himself before he busted out of his rocket. His eyebrows rose when he saw in the reflection of the window that his bald cap had been replaced with a mane of rainbow feathers, and his mask had lost its domino mask appearance and looked painted on. 

It suddenly hit him and he blinked in surprise. Wings? 

Sure enough, he glanced to the sides and saw emerald green wings made of long feathers that reached to his knees even when held out completely. The edges and tips of the wings were lined with short white feathers, which naturally drew his eyes toward his chest, which was now coated with a crimson plumage.

He wasn’t sure what he had been expecting with a flight transformation, but in hindsight wings made sense. What surprised him even more was how using them already felt like second nature. Snake Noir punched out the window with cataclysm and leapt out of the rocket, plummeting towards the ground where he knew that his lady was fighting alone. 

\-------------------------------

Marinette watched another set of rockets blasting off into the sky, her lips pressed into a thin line of determination.

“If I am not mistaken, that doesn’t seem like the standard fare for Parisian life,” Longg commented drily. “What is to be done about it?”

“Marinette is going to go after them, of course!” Tikki said resolutely, brimming with confidence. “Right, Marinette?”

“No doubt about it, Tikki.” Marinette pulled out a yellow dyed cookie. “But I think we’ll need a little extra help this time, just in case whoever this is catches us.” 

“That’s a great idea!” Tikki’s enthusiasm dimmed a bit. “But it might be best if you give that to Longg.”

“Why’s that?” Marinette scrunched up her eyebrows. 

“Not all power ups are created equal, young Guardian,” Longg said with a bow. “Some kwami take better to the brews than others.”

“Yes. I’ll give you the power of flight, sure. But Longg’s is faster and more nimble.”

Longg nodded sagely. “The lack of wings also means you cannot be suddenly robbed of your gifts.”

“No wings? Then how do you-” Marinette shook her head vigorously. “Never mind, I guess I’ll find out.” She passed the cookie to Longg. While he was eating, she said, “Tikki, spots on!” 

The potion took effect and Ladybug took a moment to brace herself for whatever was about to happen. “Tikki, Sky Longg, unify!”

At first, she didn’t really notice anything different. That lasted until she realized that she was floating a couple meters off the ground and her hair had lengthened into a massive, shimmering wave that rippled behind her like a dragon’s tail. She willed herself to move and found that her hair always stayed behind her and glided of its own accord as she flew in a direction.

Dragonbug understood what Tikki meant about Longg’s power of flight. The smoothness of it was like a dream as she easily sailed into the air and looked for the akuma. Which, judging by the yelling, called himself Rocketman. He lived up to the name too - besides the rockets that he sent people up in, he had what looked like a jet-boosted surfboard that he used to fly around and an outfit that looked like a fashion moghul had been given five minutes to design a suit with only the word ‘rocket’ as their guiding principle.

Not only was Dragonbug fighting for Paris and its people today - she was fighting to end this abomination in the eyes of fashion. 

Rocketman was just about to catch another group of people when she snared his board with her yoyo and yanked it to the side, sending the rockets harmless into the ground. There, they burst into smoke after failing to capture anyone. An angry glare was on his face as he whipped around to look at her, before quickly melding into a look of maddened joy.

“Its about time one of you showed up. I was beginning to think you’d already been sent sky high!” He spun his board around to face her. “And now you will have the honor of being beaten by ROCKETMAN!”

“Keep dreaming,” Dragonbug said as she nimbly dodged the rockets sent toward her. “Way better villains than you have had their butts kicked by me.”

“They had to fight two meddling heroes.” Rocketman grinned. “I only have to fight one.”

He unleashed a wild barrage of rockets and it was all she could do to avoid it. Despite her earlier confidence, she was worried she would have to waste time - or worse yet, one of her powers - to break free. Especially when she had to go at double speed to dodge one rocket… and the momentum carried her into the path of another.

Her jaw clenched as she prepared to take the hit.

But it never came.

Instead, there was a loud clanging noise and a wild blur of greens and blacks and reds. Snake Noir had plummeted from above and smacked the rocket, sending it into a tailspin toward the ground. His wings stabilized him and he shot her a playful wink before turning back toward the Rocketman.

“You were pretty close there! You almost _winged_ my lady. I can’t let you get away with that, now can I?”

“Nice wings, chaton.”

“Thank you, m’lady! And can I just say, I love what you’ve done with your hair today?”

“Hey! How dare you-” While Rocketman launched into a tirade about them not taking him seriously, Dragonbug drifted forward toward her partner.

“Chat,” she whispered. “Can you distract him while I summon my lucky charm?”

“Leave it to this cat to cause some mayhem!” He grinned and with a few powerful strokes of his wings soared above Rocketman and dived toward him.

With the akuma on the backfoot for now, Dragonbug summoned her lucky charm. A frown creased her face as a tall glass bottle - red and spotted, naturally - dropped into her hands.

“A bottle?” She shook it and felt liquid slosh around inside it. “Full of… something. Reminds me of-” Her eyes widened as she had a moment of remembering the meal her papa had made just the day before. “Oh!”

She threw it over the akuma and yelled out to her partner. “Chat! Break it!”

There was no hesitation or any questions on his part. In the span of a second he’d glanced from her to the bottle and immediately extended his baton and smashed the bottle. The akuma raised its arms to block as glass shards and a pale yellow liquid rained down on him.

Confusion gripped his face as he sniffed it. “...Olive oil?”

Snake Noir glanced back at her and she made a subtle motion to follow her. Then she flew away from the akuma at top speed, staying close to street level, but not so fast that he couldn’t keep up. Snake Noir was right behind her.

“Hey! Get back here,” Rocketman shouted indignantly as he gave pursuit. Even from this distance she could see the purple mask outline around his face - no doubt Hawkmoth was warning him about a trap, but Rocketman was in no mood to listen.

“What’s the plan, LB?”

“Just follow right behind me, okay? We’re going to make a hard turn in 3… 2… Now!”

They both suddenly veered to the right around a building. Rocketman turned as well…

...only to slide right off his board. 

“Oh, the oil!” Snake Noir hit his forehead. “I get it now.”

“Mhm. Now if you’d be a good chaton and break that board.”

“Your wish is my command, bugaboo.”

A quick purification and Ladybug Cure later, and the two of them were fistbumping over another victory. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Tumblr link to the fanart](https://thewritewolf.tumblr.com/post/630324488703246336)


	13. Cuddles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya has a great picture to show the class.

“Guys, freak _out!_ ” Alya said without preamble as she burst into the classroom. “Your girl has got the best scoop of the _week_ for the Ladyblog!”

“You?” Chloe raised an eyebrow as she paused in filing her nails to glance over at Alya. “Your little gossip rag definitely doesn’t have _anything_ good on it, let alone the ‘best’.”

One of Alya’s eyes twitched in anger as she rounded on Chloe, but Rose launched up from her seat and said, “That sounds amazing! Knowing you, I’m sure it’s something great!”

“Rose is right,” Marinette added. “What have you got for us?”

Annoyance vanished from Alya’s face as excitement washed over her again. “Check it out, girl!”

Alya practically lunged over the boys’ desk to shove her phone at Marinette, which meant that while she was leaning toward it, Nino and Adrien were poking their heads over out of curiosity. Marinette’s heart pounded in her chest when she realized her face was only a few centimeters from an oblivious Adrien. If she just moved a little…

“Woah, babe! That’s a legit pic of the hero dudes!”

Marinette pried her attention away from Adrien to actually look at the phone. Sure enough, there she was - or more accurately, there was Dragonbug. Sitting in the lap of Snake Noir, both of them looking exhausted and on the verge of falling asleep, the very image of adorable. Her cheeks heated up at the sight of it. Out of context it looked pretty incriminating. After all, how could an outside observer really understand just how close they were, how comfortable they felt around each other? But just because they were close didn’t mean they were… _together_ or anything. They were just friends!

The worst part was she couldn’t remember when that had been. It happened so often, it could’ve been any time in the last couple months. Some of the other students started crowding around to get a sneak peek of the next big Ladyblog post.

“I knew it’d happen eventually!” Alya cackled in satisfaction. “Ladynoir is setting sail, boys and gals and nonbinary pals!” She rubbed her hands together. “I always knew they were secretly a thing.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Alya.” Marinette held up a hand as if to slow her down. “We always knew they were really close as teammates. Is this really anything different than that?”

“Mm… I don’t know,” Rose said as she looked at the photo. “I’m an expert on all things romantic and they definitely look like they are super cuddly! Way more than ‘just teammates’.”

“Yeah,” Alya said, crossing her arms. “And besides, girl, it took you forEVER to admit that the cat had a thing for the bug. I’m not about to stand by and let you sink my second favorite ship.”

Alya didn’t leave any room for doubt about what she considered her favorite ship as she glanced briefly toward Adrien and winked at Marinette.

“I’m just saying,” Marinette said, getting a little exasperated. Why was she always the only one arguing that she wasn’t dating Chat Noir? “Maybe they just like being friends? Is there anything wrong with that?”

“Marinette’s right.”

Help came from an unexpected source as Adrien spoke up, making her stomach flutter as he turned to look at her. 

“I am? I mean, yes! Right. Correct, that’s me.”

Alya pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head, but Adrien didn’t seem to mind the babbling. Instead, he just nodded along.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir are a great team. Whether or not they are dating, they have an amazing friendship. Isn’t that enough?”

“Exactly!” Marinette replied. “We should respect their privacy and take what they say at face value. If they say they aren’t dating, they aren’t dating.”

Alya rolled her eyes and took her seat, slouching against the back and reading the blog post over one more time. “Yeah, fine, I guess. That’s fair.”

Marinette was just about to relax when Adrien said one more thing.

“I mean, I’m the biggest Ladynoir shipper there is so I’d be thrilled if they got together, but like Marinette said, we should respect their privacy.”

“Woah there, blondie,” Alya said, phone forgotten on the table as she suddenly sat up straight. “You might be a big Ladynoir shipper, but you are no way the _biggest._ ”

“Well, it’s like you said.” Adrien smirked, a surprisingly glint of mischief in his eyes. “Ladynoir is only your _second_ favorite ship.”

As the two of them started playfully arguing, Marinette felt her soul leave her body. Her crush was shipping her with someone else entirely. Could her life get any weirder?


	14. Chat Blanc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir learns about an alternate timeline.

They were on the tail end of one of their late night sessions, which had become part training part patrol and part just talking. Both of them were tired but neither of them wanted to go home just yet. For the time being, they were just sitting in silence, looking out over the city and enjoying each other’s company.

But there was something on Snake Noir’s mind. A question that he wanted the answer to. 

“What do you think would happen if one of us got akumatized?”

It was something that Snake Noir had been thinking about more and more lately. Sure it had always been a big question to ask before everything had gone down, but the answer has always seemed pretty clear. Ladybug had beaten a mind controlled Chat Noir enough that he was pretty sure he could be contained if it came to that. And for a while, there was always the possibility of additional heroes that they could rely on if they had to take down a rogue miraculous hero.

But now there was no Master Fu to recruit new heroes. On top of that, new heroes wouldn’t even be a good idea any more. Especially with how powerful they had become.

Which made the question even more potent - if akumatization was a legitimate concern before, it was even more pressing if they each had twice as many miraculous and all the potions to choose from. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Dragonbug said with a yawn. “I mean, Bunnyx would come along and fix things like that if it came to that.”

Snake Noir scrunched up his eyebrows. “Why would she? The only reason she showed up last time was because a villain from the future came back to our time.”

Dragonbug leaned up against him, eyes closed. “The last time something like that happened she showed up to prevent it, so if it's really bad I’m sure she’ll pop up.”

“Wait, ‘last time’? We’ve never been akumatized.” Beside him, Dragonbug tensed. “...What happened?”

“I’m…” She seemed to hesitate. “I’m not sure, to be honest. I never found out much about what caused it or anything.”

Emotion drained from his face. His voice was barely above a whisper when he asked, “Which one of us was it?”

“Chaton…”

He buried his face in his hands and groaned. 

“No one blames you,” she said as she put a hand on his shoulder. She was definitely wide awake now. “It's like we’ve said a hundred times - Hawkmoth preys on moments of weakness and we’re only human.”

“Yeah, we tell that to civilians,” he said sullenly, “who don’t have to keep it together or else Paris gets wrecked.” 

“Hey!” Her angry retort snapped his attention back to her. “Just because we have more responsibilities doesn’t mean we’re any less human. We’ve made mistakes. We will make more mistakes. That’s just part of life. What’s on us is how we respond to it.”

“Okay, okay.” He sighed and took a moment to think about a timeline where he had been turned against Paris - and against his lady. His expression became steely and he took her hand, placing it and his own over his heart. He turned to look her in the eye, which seemed to surprise her. “I promise, I will _never_ let it come to that again.”

“Chaton… We don’t exactly have control over that.”

“Yeah well I’m deciding on it anyway. I’m not going to let Hawkmoth ever turn me against you. We’re unstoppable together and he’s not going to ruin that.”

She blinked and a smile dawned on her face.

“Thanks, Chat.” Her eyes became distant as if she was remembering something and her smile flickered. “I just… I hope it never comes to that. I never want to see Chat Blanc again.”

He snorted. “Good to know even alternate timeline Hawkmoth continues to have such _creative_ names for his akumas.”

Dragonbug giggled which got him laughing too and soon enough the worries of akumatization were pushed from their minds for a little while longer. 


	15. In Sync

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A sparring match, a demonstration of refined skills.

“Again.”

Dragonbug responded to the simple command by charging toward her partner. Just like last time, he raised his staff to deflect her but this time she was ready. Her twirling yoyo blocked it and whirled around it. With a tug of her wrist she wrenched the weapon out of his grip and tossed it to the side while she pressed on. 

Snake Noir didn’t seem the least bit concerned about it, instead wheeling backwards as he dodged swings of her sword and pulling out the snake’s lyre. It wasn’t that great as a shield, except for the one quality it had in common with all miraculous tools - its indestructible nature. Held in both hands, it held firm against her strikes. He couldn’t keep doing that forever, though.

Therefore it didn’t come as much of a surprise when he suddenly switched tactics. Instead of blocking it with the lyre’s arms, he caught the sword in between the strings and twisted. The motion broke her grip on the hilt and he tossed the trapped sword and his lyre aside. While the instrument was well balanced for being thrown, the sword weighed it down and it clattered to the ground ten meters away from them.

Away from them… and in the opposite direction of where she’d sent his staff. Clever cat. 

While she still had her yoyo, Chat had always been better at hand to hand fighting than her. Besides, a yoyo needed some space to use, space she already knew Snake Noir wasn’t going to let her have. 

All this passed through her mind in less than two seconds, all the while her partner stood with serpentine patience, watching her. His muscles tensed like a tiger ready to pounce, waiting for a hint of intention on her part. Would she stand and fight, letting Snake Noir have the advantage? Or would she retrieve her weapon and let him have his as well?

The decision was clear - she couldn’t fight a losing battle.

She’d barely flexed a muscle and Snake Noir took that as his moment to move, springing toward his discarded weapon. She dashed toward her sword, using her yoyo to toss it up into the air and onto her waiting hand. By the time she turned around, Snake Noir was rolling back onto his feet, his staff held in two hands as he crouched down opposite her. 

They smirked at each other and relaxed. 

“You’re getting pretty good at this, m’lady.” Snake Noir stood up straight and shrunk his staff into a baton.

She scoffed as she sheathed her sword. “I was already pretty good, chaton.” She winked. “But thanks for noticing.” Her yoyo slapped into her open palm. “You aren’t half bad yourself. Good to see that you aren’t just blindingly running up and swinging.”

“And risk smacking my lovely partner in the face?” He put the back of his hand over his forehead. “No way.”

“Dork,” she said as she tapped his nose, giggling as he went cross eyed to follow the motion. “How long were we at it, anyway?”

“Um…” he checked his baton. “One and a half hours?”

Dragonbug blinked in surprise. “Huh. It felt more like ten minutes or something.”

“Yeah. And the weird thing?” Snake Noir stretched and ran in place. “I feel like I could keep going.”

“Same here. I’ve got loads of energy still left.” She cupped her chin. “Do you think that means we’ve gotten that harmony thing down with our miraculous?”

He shrugged. “I dunno, you’re the Guardian. If it means I’m not going to be exhausted any more then I’m all for it.”

“You can say that again. Looks like things are finally starting to fall into place for us, huh?”

Snake Noir hummed in agreement. “So…” he said as he glanced out over the darkened horizon. The sun had long since set despite it not even being twenty one hundred hours yet, as the winter began to shorten the daylight hours. “You wanna go for another round?”


	16. First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir has an important question for Dragonbug.

Patrols had turned into sparring and sparring often lingered and became conversation. In Snake Noir’s mind, both were equally important.

Yes, the sparring was good and helpful and let them grow stronger as heroes. That was unquestionable since it had already made them even better at using their two miraculous in tandem. They no longer really had to stop and think about what they were doing or switch mindsets as they swapped weapons. Both of them used their weapons in accord, each as much an extension of themselves as their own arms were.

But the conversations… _that_ was what made them a better team, rather than just better heroes. Sure their bond was already a pretty resilient thing, but the more time he got to be with her that wasn’t spent being busy with something else - whether that be akumas or patrols or play fights - the more he really got to connect with her on a personal level. 

The fact that this meant he got to ask her questions about herself and offer up answers in return was just the icing on the cake.

“So… have you had your first kiss yet?” Snake Noir grinned. “Besides me, of course.”

Dragonbug groaned and she fell backwards onto the rooftop. “That was barely even a kiss! I was saving you, it shouldn’t count as my first and especially shouldn’t count as yours since you can’t even remember it!”

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then?”

“No,” she said, glaring daggers at him, “I haven’t had a _real_ kiss with anyone yet.”

He sighed. “And here I thought what we had was real. Oh! That reminds me,” he said, interrupting her pouting. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something for a while.”

“This better not be the set up for one of your lame pick up lines,” she said, crossing her arms.

“They aren’t _lame_ if they get you to smile, which they do.” He smirked as she rolled her eyes but didn’t disagree with him. “Anyway - why _did_ you kiss me during that whole Dark Cupid thing? We never tried that before for mind controlled people, but it worked! How did you know?”

“Oh,” Dragonbug said, relaxing a little. “That’s easy. That day in class, I heard something about how kisses could break any spell. I knew I couldn’t beat Dark Cupid alone and this was before I could call for help, so I figured it was worth a shot.”

Snake Noir bit down on his lips to fight the smile that threatened to spread across his face. “...My lady.”

“What? It worked, didn’t it?”

“Yes, it did,” he said gleefully. “But its not any old ordinary kiss that has magical powers to break curses, you know.”

“...Okay?”

“It is True Love’s Kiss that does that.”

For years and years afterwards he would cherish the moment that her face went as red as her suit and she sputtered and stuttered as she tried to refute him.

He chuckled and leaned back, his hands behind his head. “Don’t worry, bugaboo. Maybe it just has to be a true love’s kiss for one of the people involved.”

Not likely, but she accepted the answer with a nod.

“Yeah… that…” She cleared her throat. A few moments passed in silence before she spoke again. “Chat?”

“Hm…?”

“Usually you’d be teasing me about that for days. Why are you giving it up so quickly?” Her eyes narrowed. “...You aren’t planning something are you?”

“No, no. This snake has no tricks.” He put his hand over his chest. “Cat’s honor.”

“Right… so what’s the deal?”

He shrugged. “Well, I’m sure you’ll come around eventually. In the meantime, I’m just going to focus on being the best friend and partner I can be. Even if nothing comes of the true love thing, at least we’ll still have the friendship, right?”

Dragonbug relaxed and gave him a soft smile. “Right.”


	17. Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Marinette start thinking about what's coming next.

“You gonna stop doing that anytime soon, kid?” Plagg tossed a wedge of cheese in the air and ate it as it came back down. “You’re going to make me lose my appetite if you keep pacing like that.”

Adrien stopped to stare incredulously at his kwami. “Plagg I don’t know if _anything_ can do that. And even if it could, I’d do it anyway just so you wouldn’t eat your way through your camembert supply so fast.”

“Ssstill, Plagg isss correct, in hisss own way.” Sass floated in front of Adrien, sitting cross legged in the air. “Clearly there isss sssomething troubling you. Do you wisssh to ssspeak of it?”

“I just…” Adrien stood in place, anxiously shifting from one foot to the other. “I have this awful feeling that Hawkmoth is planning something big. I want to be ready for whatever is coming next.”

Sass nodded. “Underssstandable. A common concern for heroesss-”

Plagg cut him off. “And…?” 

“And what?”

“Oh come on kid.” His kwami rolled his eyes. “You can trick Sass cuz he’s only been hanging out with you for a few months, but I definitely haven’t forgotten about your big old crush on Ladybug.”

“Okay, fine.” Adrien pinched the bridge of his nose. “That whole thing with Ladybug and the true love’s kiss thing got me thinking about all that again.”

“As if you ever stopped,” Plagg said with a snort.

“Still, the big thing is the akumas.”

“Because taking down an akuma fast will make Ladybug fall for you.”

Adrien looked at Plagg with wide eyes. “Do you really think so?”

Plagg covered his face with his tiny paws. 

“Well… on the sssubject of improving…”

“Yes?” Adrien turned his attention away from Plagg and back to Sass. “What’ve you got for me, Sass?”

“Sssecond Chance requires patience and taking a distant view of a sssituation. Thessse… are not qualitiesss that come naturally to you, a fact proven by the firssst time you usssed my miraculous.”

“Hey, I’ve been getting better!”

“Thisss isss true,” Sass admitted, nodding his head sagely. “But there isss ssstill much room for improvement.”

Adrien sighed and slumped his shoulders. “I’ll try, Sass.”

“That isss all I can asssk, young hero.”

\------------------

“Is this something that happens so alarmingly frequently?” Longg asked as Marinette paced in front of them, arms flailing around her as she had a quiet debate with herself.

“You’ll get used to it,” Tikki replied, taking a bite out of her chocolate chip cookie. “We just need to keep an eye on her so she doesn’t spiral or anything. Except for that, it’s usually best to let it run its course.”

“But… what is she even talking about?”

Tikki shrugged and gestured with her eyes toward their shared chosen. Longg took the hint and cleared his throat.

“Miss Guardian?” Marinette froze and looked at Longg. “May I inquire as to what you are doing?”

“I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to take down Hawkmoth.”

Longg nodded. “A noble cause.”

Tikki held up her paw to stop Longg. After all, she knew her chosen well. “And why is that suddenly so much more important?”

“Because if I have to juggle school and guardian and hero stuff, then how will I have any time to date Adrien?!” Marinette fell to her knees and put her hands on her head.

Tikki chuckled and floated over to her, patting her hand reassuringly. After a moment, Long followed suit. “This isn’t something we can rush, Marinette.”

“She is correct,” Longg added. “The longer we combat Hawkmoth and the more efficiently we defeat his agents, the more likely we will force his hand and make him arrive to the battlefield himself.”

“And when that moment comes...” Tikki smiled. “We’ll be ready.”

Marinette groaned. “But who knows how long that will take?! We were still fighting Hawkmoth in the future, according to Bunnyx!”

Tikki exchanged a look with Longg. “True, but time is… hm. Fluff explains this a lot better.”

“Don’t think of time as a sword through a tapestry, Marinette,” Long said. “Think of it like a hammer against ice. Many cracks all leading out in separate, winding paths.”

“Right!” Tikki nodded. “What Bunnyx described is just _one_ possible future. We could easily end up in a different one entirely!”

“Okay… but still. How are we going to beat him and _soon_? There’s got to be some sort of Guardian magic to pull it off.” Marinette’s eyes widened and she jumped to her feet. “What about the pink potion? That’d work, right?”

“That’s… the Truesight potion, right?” Tikki asked. When Marinette nodded she continued. “That’d only work if you could see him while you had the effect active. And if that were the case, you’d just have to take his miraculous anyway. _If_ it works on the miraculous magic and _if_ you could recognize him on the spot.”

Marinette pouted. “I guess…” She buried her face in her hands. “I’d make it and just use it for every battle, but besides being the hardest one to make, it’d accidentally find out who Chat Noir is.”

“I think the potions have selective usage for just that reason.” At Marinette’s blank look, Longg continued. “Just like the potion of stealth allows you to turn its abilities on and off at will, you could simply _decide_ not to see through the chosen of the black cat’s protections. So that, at least, is not a concern.”

“Still leaves us at square one though.” Marinette sighed. “I just want to punch Hawkmoth’s stupid face already!”

Longg nodded sagely. “As do we all, young Guardian. As do we all.” 


	18. Close Call

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A team of four enemies might be a little too much for our heroes to handle... especially with the elemental powers each of them possess.

“Okay, Hawkmoth is definitely getting some extra power somehow,” Dragonbug said as she did her best to hold off what appeared to be a person made out of fire and a living whirlwind. 

It was a frustrating combination - the whirlwind was scattering embers from the fire akuma, leading to a blaze that was slowly spreading across her city. A glance at the scene around her - all fire and smoke and heat haze - was enough to make her grateful once again for her miraculous cure. Soon enough, neither of them would be able to breath in this arena, let alone fight in it.

“Four akumas seems like an awful lot,” Snake Noir replied as he tried to stay ahead of two more enemies. “Do you think he’s been doing his homework? Or did he just find a new magic crystal or something in his cereal box?”

One of his opponents was similar to Stoneheart in that it looked like a person made out of boulders. The main differences were that this one was more the size of a large person rather than a giant, and it lacked a face. The other looked like a rolling tidal wave with a giant human face in the seafoam. As much as she would hope the water would cancel out the fire, it was doing a great job avoiding being helpful, instead constantly striving to slam into her partner. 

“Only two of them are akumas,” Dragonbug corrected, using her yoyo shield to block a heat blast and getting a little singed anyway. “I think the earth and air ones are amoks.”

“Great, so Hawkbutt still has help. At least I feel better about _this!_ ” Snake Noir slammed his baton full force into the earth amok’s side, sending it flying into one of the burning buildings.

As glad as she was that they’d managed to get all the citizens out of the area before Hawkmoth’s crew arrived, she also recognized a losing fight when she saw one. And seeing the building collapse into a hellish blaze reminded her that they still had options.

“Chat, follow me!”

Latching onto an as-of-yet intact piece of masonry with her yoyo, Dragonbug pulled herself away with the wind roaring in her ears.

Or so she had thought, until she realized it wasn’t the usual wind whipping past her, but the living whirlwind assaulting her. She was being battered all around, her grip on her yoyo slipping as she held on for dear life.

It ended in an instant. There had to be something solid inside the air amok, otherwise Snake Noir’s baton extending into it at max speed would’ve done nothing. With a nod of appreciation at her partner, she pulled on her yoyo and they both got out of there. 

A few streets over and they leapt through the windows of an abandoned office building.

“Over here!” Snake Noir grabbed her hand and pulled her into a bathroom. He let go of her and rushed into one of the stalls. She took the one next to his.

“Longg, Tikki! Divide!” Longg’s powers left her and for a moment, Ladybug stood in the bathroom stall. It didn’t last long before she called off that transformation as well. “Tikki, spots off.”

While the kwami looked up at her expectantly, she heard Chat go through the same process, less than a meter away from her. 

“Sass, Plagg! Divide. Plagg, claws in.” Whoever it was behind his mask addressed her. “So, my lady. What’s the plan?”

“Well, the red potion for Tikki and Plagg, for sure. I'm not sure what else we should use, though.”

“‘Cause of all the fire, yeah, I figured.” There was a pause. “Wait, does that mean…?”

“Yes.” Marinette looked into her kwamis eyes and saw some surprise, but also steady resolve. “I think it’s time to use two potions at once.”

“Well,” Tikki said with some uncertainty. “You won’t have access to both at the same time, I think.”

“How would we use both then?” The boy who was Chat asked. “Is it wasted?”

“No…” Sass said. There was a hint of worry in his voice, but Marinette couldn’t figure out why. “You’d have to either turn off your primary miraculousss or redo the unification.”

“Sounds easy enough.” Marinette nodded. “Got it, Chat?”

“Y-yeah,” he said. Before she could wonder about his uncharacteristic nervousness, he pushed on. “So, second potion. What are you thinking?”

“Well… ideally we’ll be beating the fire akuma with the red potion.”

“It might be good to take out the water guy at the same time,” Chat added. “That way, we can put out some of the fires.”

“And if I’m right about them being the two akumas-”

“-which you no doubt are, knowing you-”

“-then that means we can focus on the mindless monsters afterwards. So maybe something that gives us some leeway. Flight again?”

“No orange?”

“If its true that Hawkmoth is copying the potions we use, then I’d like to keep that in the bag for now. I think we can manage with the others.”

“Spot on as usual, my lady. Ready to feed the kwamis and suit up?”

A smirk crossed her face. “Always.”

\-----------

Snake Noir was working hard to keep the whirlwind and boulder monster at bay for his lady. Teaming up on the fire guy had ended up in disaster, but a quick reset and a change in strategy later and things were going a little better now. Even if he felt the loss of having more allies now more than ever.

Against his better judgement, he snuck a look over his shoulder toward Dragonbug while his opponents were still reeling from one of his attacks. Black covered her hands and feet, with bright flame markings ending the soot-like marks at her wrists and ankles. A scale pattern had replaced her usual suit texture, and gleamed like hot embers. He caught a look of determination as he saw through the blue tinted visor of her new helmet. 

Then she swung her sword turned axe, its blunt side sweeping against the water monster and splashing the fire guy with a sizzling hiss. His attention was pulled back to his own fight just in time to dodge a rocky fist. 

In comparison, his suit hadn’t changed all that much - instead of his smooth black leather, his suit almost looked like bronze. Tufts of tawny fur edged the cuffs of his gauntlets and boots, and a whole mane of it surrounded his head - a head which was now completely covered in something similar to a motorcycle helmet.

Which was topped with cat ears, naturally. A perfect match to the lion’s tail that had replaced his leather belt tail.

In this fight, the tail was less useful than the ears, which often gave him his only warning about when an attack was coming in. Sure, he didn’t need much help when it came to the rock monster since it telegraphed its attacks in what felt like hours ahead of time. But that wasn’t the one he was worried about. 

No, what he had to listen for was the whistling wind that rapidly built to a howling gale as the air amok tried to slam into him. There was never much time to evade since it came so quickly, but the trade off was that it didn’t hit all that hard.

The problem was that the rock monster _did_ pack a punch and being hit by the gale stunned him long enough for the boulder fist to wind up and hit him, something he’d figured out the hard way. Thank all the kwami for Second Chance or this battle might have been over already. 

All that to say, this fight was on a razor’s edge but only for him. He was struggling to make any offensive moves, but then again, he didn’t really need to. 

“Found you!”

The eager shout from his lady saw him look back just in time to see a splash of water reveal a necklace around the fire guy’s neck, buried in flame. But while she was busy rushing for that, he caught a glimpse of something in the water akuma as it took a moment to recover. Something weirdly shaped located at the core. 

On the bare-looking akumas and amoks, odds were that it was the source of their power. He waited and listened, staring intently at the rock monster as he positioned himself just right.

The whistling started just where he thought it would, but even then he waited, tensing all his muscles, until the howling gale were nearly on him then-

He threw himself to the side with as fast as he could, at the very last possible second. The living whirlwind breezed past him to slam into the stone beast, staggering it back a step and stunning the wind as well. The two of them distracted briefly, he whipped around and ran. 

As he approached, Dragonbug was making desperate grabs for the now freely dangling necklace, but the fire akuma was keeping just out of reach. The water akuma, trying to support its ally, was too focused on Dragonbug to notice him. At least until his baton was slicing through it. It connected with something solid which shattered satisfyingly. 

The water creature began to shrink in on itself as it transformed back into a human. The sight of which must have surprised the fire akuma and uncertainty flickered in its flames. A moment of hesitation, but more than enough to give Dragonbug the upper hand as she lunged forward and yanked the necklace off it. A swift punch shattered it and the fires coating the person extinguished. 

Two purifications later and two citizens in The Last Airbender cosplays stood blinking in bewilderment on the battlefield. Trusting Dragonbug to fix things, Snake Noir returned to the remaining amoks who were even now barreling down on them.

“Water Dragon!” 

A sudden rain, like a tropical deluge, fell all around them. The fires were extinguished, leaving the area much colder and darker than before.

“Chat, come on! Get the civilians out and swap out!”

After blocking a swing from the rock monster and dodging the whirlwind, he nodded and scooped up one of the civilians. Dragonbug got the other and they escaped the area. The whirlwind seemed to be playing it safe now, since it didn’t chase after them. 

The four of them landed on a rooftop, where they dropped off the civilians.

“I’m super sorry about all this,” the woman wearing a Water Tribe cosplay said. “I didn’t think an argument would be enough to cause… _that_.” She gestured toward the scorched section of the city, now dripping wet.

“Just an argument turned you into such powerful akumas?” Dragonbug’s eyebrows rose.

“Well, it was a pretty _heated_ fight,” the man in a Fire Nation outfit said with a smirk. Snake Noir chuckled appreciatively. 

“Any clue where the… control thing for those things are?” Snake Noir tapped his chin in thought. “It’ll probably be something tied to your fight.” 

The man and woman glanced at each other, then patted themselves down. 

“Uhh… Do you have that wood leaf?” 

“The one painted to look slightly burned, like Aang had practiced firebending on it, right?” The woman shook her head. “No, I don’t. Do you have the glowy crystal, like from the cave of two lovers?”

“Nope,” the man replied, popping the ‘p’. He turned to the two heroes. “Looks like you’re after a crystal and a wooden leaf.”

Dragonbug tapped her chin. “I bet the leaf is lightweight, huh?”

“Oh for sure,” the woman said. “It kept getting blown away by the fan.”

“I see…” Dragonbug took out her yoyo and jumped up onto the roof ledge, Snake Noir following her lead. “Thanks for the help, you two!”

Snake Noir waved at them as he jumped off the roof after her. “Stay out of trouble!”

“I’ve got-” Dragonbug stopped when Snake Noir’s bracelet let out a shrill beep. “Take care of that first and meet me at the amoks. Just follow my lead and we should have this one in the bag.”

“I never doubted it for a second.” He gave a quick bow and dashed off.

\----------------

“Perfect timing, Chat,” Dragonbug said as she engaged in an aerial duel with the living whirlwind and nimbly dodging the occasional thrown boulder from the rock monster. 

Snake Noir’s emerald green wings carried him into a flanking position, no doubt intending to help her beat up on the wind amok. But she had different plans. It had taken her a while to figure out which piece of floating debris was the leaf in question, but once she saw it she had refused to take her eyes off of it. All she had to do was wait until-

Now!

“Wind dragon!’ A gust of wind, even stronger than her enemy but very short lived, blew straight at the leaf… and right into her partner. 

Although he was surprised at the sudden attack, it all clicked for him once the leaf smacked him in the forehead. A quick punch shattered it and the winds finally died down around them. 

The purification must have been the final straw for Hawkmoth and Mayura, since they retracted the feather from the rock monster’s amok after a moment of hesitation. The feather slipped from between the monster’s fingers, causing it to drop the crystal the cosplayers had mentioned. Despite its best attempts, the feather didn’t get away either and it too was purified.

“Lucky Charm!” A first place medal landed into her hands and a smirk crossed Dragonbug’s face. She immediately tossed it back into the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!”

Dragonbug put her hands on her hips and watched with satisfaction while the city was mended before her very eyes. Snake Noir stepped up to her with a smile and a raised fist.

“May I interest you in a ‘pound it’ for a job well done?”

She pretended to consider it for a moment before nodding and returning the fist bump. “You may.”


	19. Rain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir and Dragonbug spar in the rain.

“So… it has come to this,” Snake Noir said. The pouring rain ran down his face like tears as he stared across the empty space of the abandoned park. He pointed his baton at Dragonbug. “I can’t stand by any more… Your tyranny ends today, Ladybug! _If that is even your real name!_ ”

“It isn’t.” Dragonbug sighed, yoyo twirling at her side and sword held at the ready. “Why do you have to be like this?”

“Afraid of my righteous anger? You should be! I have studied the blade _and_ the staff. I am a master of the very weapon you wield!”

“Didn’t you say you were an epee fencer?”

“Foil.”

“Oh yeah, that’s right.”

“As a _master_ of the _blade_ , I will be your greatest challenge yet - one that you will not overcome!” 

“Can we just start sparring already?” 

“Impatient for your defeat, hm? Very well - have at you!” 

Snake Noir charged at her. His opening move wasn’t hard for her to block, but the important thing was blocking in just such a way to lead to a better opportunity later. With that goal in mind, she let the staff be glanced aside by her sword as she slipped past her partner. She sent her yoyo darting forward to snare his ankle, but he rolled with the deflection, leaning on his staff and using it to propel himself away from her. 

The two of them whirled around to face each other again. Lightning cracked.

“You were my friend, Dragonbug,” Snake Noir shouted over the rain. “I loved you. How could you betray us to the dark side?”

“Probably because you kept monologuing during our sparring sessions.”

“Sadly,” he said, acting as if he hadn’t heard her, “we may never know.”

Once again, he readied his staff and ran at her, but this time she met the block full force. With a quick twist, she used her sword to pull the weapon out of Snake Noir’s hands. _That_ at least quieted him down as focused on the fight. Too little too late for him - just as he back peddled and reached for his lyre, she sent out her yoyo again. 

Even with his attention split he managed a dodge, but it wasn’t enough. Sure, she hadn’t managed to pin his arms to his chest, but his ankles tied together was a good second place prize. Snake Noir collapsed face first into the wet grass and twisted around so he was on his back, lyre in hand. 

Goofball he might be, but he sure wasn’t a quitter. Unfortunately for him, the past six months of his mentoring and good old experience had taught her well. A lyre just wasn’t going to cut it as a shield any more, although he did get a few good blocks in before she managed to wrench it out of his hands. 

He scrambled to prop himself up on his elbows, but got no further before her sword rested at his throat. She pushed his chin up to face her as she stood over him and watched with satisfaction as his face turned scarlet. 

“So… it has come to this,” she began. Snake Noir groaned and let himself fall backwards with a splash as she started her own monologue with a captive audience.


	20. Deja Vu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette works on brewing potions.

Marinette swallowed nervously as she added a drop of vanilla extract to the brewing mini cauldron. If it weren’t for the seriousness of the situation, it might have even enjoyed how it made her feel like a witch. 

As it stood, though, she could only peek through her fingers as she watched how the potion reacted to her improvised ingredients. Some of her experiments had sometimes ended up… well, messy would be putting it lightly. Thankfully, both her parents were heavy sleepers and she’d chosen to do this stuff late at night. If she thought late absences and forgotten appointments were hard to explain, then making excuses for throwing random ingredients into a cauldron would be almost impossible.

Well, they weren’t _entirely_ random. Most were things that she could find at the bakery or in nearby stores without searching too hard. Some were even ideas that she had gotten from Master Fu’s attempts at deciphering the Guardian recipes. Unfortunately, guesses and half-baked deductions were all she had to go off of. Not only could she not ask the kwamis anything, they couldn’t even be in the same room while she was experimenting. 

While she did have some leftover reagents from Fu’s shop, she had decided to work entirely from local stock on a hunch. 

The gist of the idea was - maybe the reason the first potions Master Fu had brewed up back during Syren’s attack had failed was because he was mixing ancient, distant recipes with modern, local ones. If she used only the local and modern stuff, maybe it would work better?

Thinking about Syren reminded her of the times she’d go over to Master Fu’s to continue her Guardian training. Although she would keenly feel the weight of the extra responsibilities, she always enjoyed the lessons. Learning about the kwamis - their powers, sure, but more importantly their names and personalities and preferences - was a blast. Alchemy and other Guardian magics had been more tedious, but now, as she sweated over a bubbling brew, she was wishing that she had managed to cram in even more of those lessons.

Then, it happened. The bubbling stopped and the mixture began to glow. By the time it was done, she looked in quiet awe at a red brew. She clapped her hands excitedly. This was great news! Although she hadn’t set out to make the fire protection potion, even with her weak Guardian abilities, she could sense the magic inside it.

She blinked in surprise when parts of the potion turned black. What was even stranger was when the black spots… well… turned into _spots_. Perfectly circular, reforming even after she stirred it to try to mix it back into the brew. So, she didn’t have the flame potion… but it was certainly magical. What was it?

Something about the potion that bore her colors spoke to her. Acting on another hunch, she scooped up a ladle full and stuck out her hand, where there were some light burns from a failed experiment. 

The liquid was pleasantly cool as she poured it over her singed hand. To her surprise, it didn’t slide off like any other liquid, but rather stuck to her hand and sunk into her skin with a faint glow. When it was all gone, her hand was as good as new. She grinned, all her previous worry falling off her in the face of her giddy excitement.

“Tikki! Longg! Come look at what I made!”

It wasn’t what she had set out to make, but it definitely proved her theory. With some hard work and practice, she’d have some modern recipes for the old potions in no time at all. And who knows? Maybe she’d have some new potions to go along with it.

Speaking of new potions…

She stared at her creation. It might be useful, but putting it in containers and hiding it could be a pain. And she had her ladybug cure… did she really need a bottled version of it? Maybe not…

...But she wasn’t about to throw away any advantage she could get, she thought as she dug around for some empty water bottles. 


	21. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The class goes on a museum field trip, but things don't stay peaceful for long.

The day started like any other, with the exception of a late spring semester field trip. It had been meant to be a reward for them for everyone doing so well on their last batch of quizzes for the semester. And what better place to celebrate than the famous Louvre museum?

“Great job on that history exam, girl!” Alya said, squeezing Marinette in a half hug. “I knew all that extra studying would pay off.”

“I dunno if our study sess was responsible for that, babe.” Nino smirked. “After all, most of the time we met up in the library, you and my main bro over here just kept getting into arguments about who was the bigger Ladynoir shipper.”

“Which I’m glad to say we decided was me,” Adrien said over his shoulder. They were lagging behind a little from the school group, but they had Alix gliding along on her rollerskates in front of them. Even if they got seperated, she’d be able to get them out of there. 

“Only since you showed us your Ladynoir fanfic stash and the Ladyblog doesn’t count as a Ladynoir site.”

“It’s for news and your obsession with superheroes,” Marinette cut in, trying to shove down the butterflies in her stomach at the idea of Adrien writing fanfic about her. “It isn’t _exclusively_ ship content.”

“Yeah well-” 

Alya’s retort was cut short when the lights flickered. Some dust fell from the ceiling as the building shook. A tense silence filled the room as their classmates and other museum-goers quieted. Worried murmuring picked up.

Marinette couldn’t hear much of it, but there were some words she picked up. 

Fight. Akuma. Hawkmoth.

Her eyes were already glancing around as she tried to disappear, excuses coming to mind. If it was nothing, she could just say she had gotten lost, or forgotten something. But if it _was_ an akuma… 

As if the very thought summoned him, a familiar opponent burst through the doors at the front of the group.

“I need an army for Hawkmoth!” Pharaoh floated a couple meters above the ground, looking out over the crowd. Everyone was frozen in fear and surprise, staring intently as he gestured with a hooked sceptre. Bolts of energy were sent into the people around him.

Marinette watched in horror as Ms Bustier, Max, Nathaniel and at least half of the rest of the class were turned instantly into mummies, along with a chunk of the other tourists. That seemed to break the spell that everyone else was under and screams rent the air as they scattered. Hesitation gripped her for just a moment before Alix sped past her.

“Get a move on, you guys!” Alix yelled behind her, her voice nearly swallowed in the chaos. “I can get us out of here without any new threads.” She jabbed a thumb over her shoulder at the mummies.

Figuring the first step to getting somewhere safe to transform was getting away from the akuma, Marinette ran after her. She breathed a sigh of relief when she glanced back and saw Alya, Nino, and Adrien following along. At least she didn’t have to worry about getting them out of harm’s way.

They arrived at a stairwell, where Alix had stopped to take off her rollerskates. Alya jogged past her and looked up the stairs. Nino was right behind her, poking his head around the corner of the intersection they were at. Marinette was inching her way towards the bathrooms down one of the halls and to her surprise noticed that Adrien was too. He caught her look and smiled bashfully.

“Um…” He swallowed nervously. “Would you believe I wanted to take a quick break?” 

Before she could reply, Nino spoke up.

“I don’t think we have time for that dude!” The worry in his voice was enough to snap their attention toward him and they saw the reason for his concern.

Moving a lot quicker than their shambling zombie cousins, a whole horde of mummies was barreling towards them. 

Alix, now barefooted and her skates tied together and tossed over her shoulder, ran into the stairwell. “C’mon, we can still stay ahead of them!”

Before any of them could move, the building shook again. This time, more than dust fell as a huge section of the ceiling collapsed. Marinette was only saved from being buried by Adrien tackling her to the side. 

“Dudes?! Are you okay?”

“Just-” Marinette coughed from all the dust and continued in a strangled voice, “just peachy! You guys go, we’ll find somewhere safe on our own.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that, girl!”

“I don’t think we’ll be peachy for much longer,” Adrien said looking down the hall. While the way to the stairs were blocked now, the mummies were still there and recovering from the shock of the sudden collapse. 

The two of them scrambled to their feet. Dust covered and a little battered, they ran in the opposite direction of the mummies. While it wasn’t the direction they’d come from, they were running blind and had no idea where the Pharaoh was. All they knew for sure was that the mummies were right behind them even as they ran deeper and deeper into the bowels of the Louvre.

They rounded a corner and Adrien suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her into an open room. He kicked the door stopper away and pushed it close.

The door sealed just in time. Careful to stay hidden, they peered through the small glass window and watched as the horde ran past their room. Only once the last echoes of their footsteps had died down did Marinette allow herself to exhale again. 

She looked around the room, which appeared to be a storage space for artifacts that weren’t on display for one reason or another. 

“Looks like we make a pretty good team, huh, Marinette?”

Her heart skipped a beat - somehow in all the confusion, she had nearly forgotten just _who_ she had escaped with.

“Y-yeah.” She tucked an errant lock of hair behind her ear. A faint smile pulled at her lips. “Although I think I’d rather have found that out through Mecha Strike or homework, not an akuma attack.”

Adrien laughed, something almost as magical as the miraculous. 

“That’s fair,” he said, still smirking. He stepped up to the door and peered through the window and down the hall. “Think we should make a break for it?”

“Definitely.” Her hand on the door knob, she hesitated. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t just stick to Adrien’s side for all this. She needed to find somewhere secluded to transform. “I know this sounds crazy, but maybe we should split up?”

He blinked at her and smiled. “Weird, I was just about to suggest the same thing. It’ll be easier to get out unnoticed that way.”

“Right, yes, exactly!” Sighing in relief, she turned the doorknob.

...Or, at least, she tried to. But it refused to move. She stared at it in shock.

“...Oh no,” Adrien said in a whisper. “We’re locked in, aren’t we?”

Marinette began pacing as she tried to figure something out. The door was sturdy and had no keyholes on this side - they wouldn’t be able to bust it down or pick the lock. She glanced around the room. No windows or other doors. There were a couple vents, but even she wouldn’t be able to fit in there. 

The kwamis? She’s never seen Tikki open anything more complex than a locker - she hadn’t been able to unlock her trick box for her diary, after all. Maybe they could find a key, but…

She just thought about Chat Noir, fighting alone against the akuma. Holding out for help that would never show up. 

There wasn’t time.

“Well, looks like there’s no choice.”

Despite the words being exactly what she was thinking, they hadn't come out of _her_ mouth. They came out of Adrien’s. She turned around just in time to see a flash of green.

And there, standing in front of her, was a very bashful looking Snake Noir. He rubbed the back of his neck as she gawked at him, open mouthed.

“I know this is a surprise, Marinette,” he said as he stepped forward and put her hands on her shoulders. “But you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about this. I’ll have to tell Ladybug you found out.” His ears drooped and he looked away. “Hopefully she won’t be too disappointed in me.”

That pulled her out of her mind-numbing shock. Her hands went to the sides of his face, her eyes locked onto his.

“I would _never,_ chaton.”

Her partner blinked in surprise. “What do you-”

She spoke her transformation phrase and Dragonbug stood in front of him.

“...My lady?”


	22. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir and Dragonbug discover the size of the situation.

With both of them transformed, a locked door didn’t prove much of an obstacle anymore. Sure they felt a little bad about busting it down with their super strength, but the Ladybug cure should fix it in the end anyway. All they needed to do was beat today’s akuma…

“Does something feel… off to you?”

 _Besides the lingering tension between us that we will eventually have to address but I’m going to definitely ignore until I absolutely have to?_ Dragonbug thought but did not say. Instead, she slowed down to a jog, her frown deepening.

“Actually yeah. I thought it was just me being on edge, though. What do you think it is?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t hear the mummies running around the museum any more.”

“Really?” She blinked in surprise. “The building is huge, though! They couldn’t have gotten through here already. Not with the numbers we saw.”

“Well, Pharaoh arrived from outside the museum.” Snake Noir grimaced. “Maybe this wasn’t his first stop.”

“I hope not.” The two of them found a clear staircase and starting climbing, moving toward what they hoped was the exit. “I’d rather not deal with a huge horde of mummies.”

“Scared, bugaboo?” Snake Noir smirked, a teasing light in his eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe. No need to go running to your _mummy_.” His eyes widened and he gasped. 

“What?!”

“I just realized I’ve met Ladybug’s mom. I’ve been in Ladybug’s _room_!” Snake Noir squealed and skipped for a moment. “Ladybug has kicked my butt in Mecha Strike!”

She shot him an exasperated look, but was secretly relieved that he seemed to be just over the moon from finding out her identity. There had been times where she had been worried that a reveal between them would make them drift apart for some reason, but there it looked like things were good. For now, at least.

Those thoughts were pushed aside as she spotted the exit. 

“Okay, we just need to track down Pharaoh,” she began as they approached the doorway. “We can ignore the mummies - if we can take him down then…” They got close to the door and something felt immediately wrong. “...everything… will be…”

They reached the exit and saw a scene of absolute devastation. Whole buildings had been turned to ruins - whether that be by fire, or knocked over, or weirdest of all, as if they had been _clawed_ to pieces. Random fires burned, pillars of smoke rising up to a blood red sky that painted the entire city crimson. 

Yelling and screaming in the distance told her two things - that there were a lot of enemies out there wrecking havoc, and that whatever they were, they were done here. An eerie silence instead reigned in their immediate vicinity. 

“Dragonbug, look!” 

She glanced back to see Snake Noir staring at his baton screen and moved closer to see what he was watching. To her surprise, Alya’s face stared right back - the Ladyblog!

“What’s up, Ladybloggers!” Alya said with a strained smile. “Looks like Hawkmoth is making a big move again - so watch out! I’m going to be doing my best to get you live updates of the situation and figure out where the hot spots are so you can stay safe! But don’t worry about me...”

She made a gesture and the camera shifted, being turned back on the person filming - which turned out to be Nino, with Alix standing right behind him with her arms crossed.

“...I’ve got my _elite team_ here and we’re not about to stand by and do nothing. Say hi, guys!”

“Uh, sup, dudes?” Nino said, taking a hand off the phone to tug at his hat nervously. 

Alix simply raised two fingers off her arm in greeting. The camera shifted back to Alya, who had a weak smile on her face. A smile which quickly vanished as she looked out over the city. The camera tracked over to where she was looking - apparently they had made it to the top of a building.

It looked even worse than Dragonbug had thought. The devastation was quickly spreading throughout all of Paris, with only pockets of normalcy left. 

“Just from us running around for the past ten minutes I’ve counted a bunch of what I can only guess are amoks, a couple dozen akumas, and some things that looked like jacked up akumas.” She glanced back at the camera. “You can tell what those are since they each glow a certain color. I’ve seen a red one burning down a park, plus a trio of yellow ones patrolling the skies.”

There was a screeching noise that made them Alya - as well as Dragonbug and Snake Noir - wince. 

“That would be them. We’ve got to move, but make sure to check in for the latest! Alya out!”

The video ended and Snake Noir paused it as it restarted. He turned to look at her.

“Looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us, my lady.” He rolled his shoulders and stretched out. “Where do you want to start?”

She stared into the middle distance, deep in thought. 

“Let’s go to my place.”

Snake Noir blinked in surprise, then smirked. “Found out my identity not twenty minutes ago and already trying to take me home with you.” He crossed his arms and leaned into her space. “Told you that you’d fall for me without the mask.”

“I was already there, chaton,” she said, pushing his face away brusquely. “But we need to hide the miraculous extra well and grab some extra potions if we’re going to fight all those akumas.”

She took out her yoyo and made a beeline for home.

“Wait, what do you mean you were already there?” She heard Snake Noir say as he called out to her, struggling to keep up with her. “What do you mean?!”


	23. Chin Scratches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dragonbug and Snake Noir begin the bitter work of taking down Hawkmoth's horde.

“Hey guys.” There was a note of sadness in Alya’s voice, which she immediately explained. “We lost Alix to one of the mind control type akumas - the one turning people into medieval knights in the 8th arrondissement - so you’d better appreciate the info we got out of it!” 

“More than you know, Al…” Dragonbug said. It was her second time watching the video.

“The biggest, meanest akuma we’ve seen yet looks like its all over the place - but it’s not!” Alya pushed up her glasses and leaned in conspiratorially. “It looks like some blue digital panther and it leaps from screen to screen. A lot like Prime Queen, if you guys remember that one.”

“No way you forgot about it, babe,” Nino said from behind the camera. “Didn’t she nab you?”

Her eyes flicked to him. “Exactly, which is why I’m not about to let it happen twice.” She looked back at the camera. “Anyway, phone screens should be fine, but keep your TVs off and stay away from ‘em just in case. Ladyblog out!”

“Ready, LB?”

Dragonbug looked up to Snake Noir, who was definitely looking more on the Chat side than Snake side after taking that orange potion. It seemed like giving more power to the kwami made their suits more like the animal in question. Or at least, that’s what she understood from his longer claws, the kitty fangs, and the now furry tail and ears he was sporting. 

She got out of it without huge changes - a cape that doubled as weak wings only good for gliding, and some tougher armor. And from what she saw in her mirror, her hair was now up in a bun with longer ribbons that were suspended over her head like antennae.

“About as ready as I’m going to get,” she said with a sigh. Short of taking them out of the city or keeping them on her, the miracle box was as hidden as it was going to get and they’d stocked up on potions. Which reminded her… “Did you feed Sass the other potion?”

“Of course,” Snake Noir said patiently. “You watched me.”

“Right, right.” She glanced at the Ladyblog page one more time before closing her yoyo. 

“Hey, don’t worry.” He took her hand and gave a comforting squeeze. “She’ll be alright. They’ll _all_ be alright, because we’re going to save the day, just like we always do.”

“It’s just… this is big. Bigger than Heroes’ Day even. And it looks like Hawkmoth is even stronger than before…”

“So are we. We’ve got two miraculous for both of us and we know how to use them, we have experience using the potions. We’re more prepared now than we’ve ever been before.” 

Slowly, she nodded.

“And you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to find Hawkmoth’s big bad akumas and we’re going to beat the stuffing out of them until the big bad man comes crawling out of his hole to actually fight us.” 

A flicker of a smile passed over her face. “Heck yeah we are.”

Just before they left, she started enacting her plan.

“Lucky Charm! Lucky Charm! Lucky Charm!”

\-------------

“Cataclysm!” 

It was the fourth time that she’d heard her partner call out his power in this battle alone, but something told her that it was the last time. Not just because the orange potion was finally going to give way, but because this fight was nearly in the bag.

It had been bitter work trapping a teleporting akuma, but they had managed it. Her lucky charms had all been in a similar vein - a pack of black markers, a manager’s keycard, and a hammer - which was what led to their winning plan. 

She glanced around the electronics store, at all the smashed televisions, the desktop screens coated in ink, the security system gone haywire thanks to a cataclysm - which meant all the windows were now covered in metal plates. 

And in the middle of it all, the amok. A big cat that looked like it was made out of light blue data, trussed up and dangling from a net made out of tangled up extension cords. Which was a surprising effect of one of Chat’s cataclysms, but she wasn’t about to question it. Destruction and entropy takes many forms after all.

Snake Noir touched his black-glowing hand to the screen on the data panther’s chest, shattering the screen. As the feather floated out and she purified it, the amok faded away like fog before the sun. Snake Noir looked back at her with a wide grin, only to wince. The panther’s claws had grazed his chin and cheek, and it pained her heart to see the thin red lines of blood. Despite the pain, he held out a fist for her, which brought a small smile to her face.

“Pound-”

Their celebration was interrupted when something - or, more accurately, a _lot_ of somethings - began pounding on the metal sheets. They glanced at each other, a quick conversation floating between them wordlessly.

 _Fight?_ The gleam in Chat’s eye said.

 _Too many_ , she replied with a simple head shake. 

_Run?_ Said his glance to the back door

 _Run_ , came her response as she dashed for it. 

No sooner had she reached the door than she heard the sound of rending metal. She flashed the manager’s keycard at the door and slipped inside once the lockdown was overran, Snake Noir immediately behind her.

“Plagg, Sass, divide.” And just like that, Aspik stood before her. Except this time the mask covered his whole face and his scales were as black as Chat Noir’s leather. Maybe even darker as it seemed to absorb the already meagre light around it. Plagg wasted no time hiding somewhere on Aspik’s person. 

“Tikki, Longg, divide.” Just like Aspik, she felt a mask covering her entire face and blinked as the room lit up in green when the night vision kicked in. A glance down confirmed that instead of her skintight suit, she had something more like a ninja’s attire. Tikki slipped into one of the pockets that the suit had added. “Ready to vanish?”

“Always, my lady.”

Both of them became invisible and slipped out the backdoor and into the alley. By the time the akumas that had converged on their position had gotten inside, they had already escaped into the sewers, gone without a trace. 


	24. Post Reveal, Pre Relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroes take some time to recover from their last fight.

“Okay… I think this is far enough.”

Aspik glanced around at where they had ended up. Some kind of underground locker room, from the looks of it. A good enough place for them to sit down and catch their breath. Something that he sorely needed to do after that fight. Who knew he relied so much on the ladybug cure to get rid of the aches and pains of a battle?

“We should probably detransform so we can feed our kwamis too.”

He nodded and croaked out, “Stealth Sass, scales rest.”

“Stealth Longg, open sky.”

In a flash of purple-tinged energy, their transformations turned off and left Marinette and Adrien standing in the underground room. Sass and Longg floated, their limbs dangling limply in exhaustion. They perked up a little when they were offered some of their usual food - some of the non-magical kind. 

“You guys better eat up,” Marinette said. “You’ll need your strength just as much as we will.”

Adrien sat down on one of the benches and prodded his face. Yup, the cuts still hurt, he noted with a wince. 

“Hang on, I think I have something for that.” 

“...Wait, do you have bandages on you? Are you always carrying them, or did I just miss you grabbing them while we were at your place?” He smirked, which brought a tinge of pain along with it. “Then again, I wouldn’t be super surprised if you did. You are pretty clumsy.”

She turned around to stick her tongue out at him and he chuckled.

“For your information, I was talking about these.” She held up a few water bottles filled with some sort of red and black liquid. “They’re kind of like bottled ladybug cure.”

His eyebrows rose. “Healing potions? Do we drink them or…?”

“No no.” She shook her head. “We put them on like lotion. Like-” She put a little on her hand and turned to him, then froze, mere centimeters away from his skin. 

“...Something wrong?”

She cleared her throat. “N-no, just, um… nothing.” 

She bridged the remaining distance and gently applied it to his cuts. He had braced himself, expecting pain, but the potion was cool and soothing. When she was done, the pain was gone completely. His muscles still ached, but at least he wasn’t actually hurt any more.

“Wow, that stuff really works!” 

“Thanks,” Marinette said with a shy smile. “It was the first thing I discovered when I was experimenting with new ingredients, like you had said.”

Adrien grinned. “You took my advice? Awesome!” His eyes widened. “Wait, first thing? Did you figure out more stuff?”

Marinette shook her head. “Just how to recreate the stuff we already had. The healing potion is the only completely new thing I had before…” She gestured all around them. 

“Well… this is still a huge help. I don’t think we could’ve lugged around a bunch of medical supplies for this battle.” He suddenly sat up. “Wait, didn’t you get hit pretty hard in that last fight?”

“Y-yeah, but don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine- Eep!” She yelped in pain when he gently laid a hand on her shoulder blade.

“That’s what I thought. Here, give me the potion and I’ll help you out.”

Very hesitantly, she turned around while he opened the bottle. Her face was burning red as he pulled down the neck of her shirt a little to get a better view of her back. 

“R-right, I, um, I see the bruise. No wonder it hurts so much. Let me, ah… let me just…” 

His touch was very cautious, very slow and the moment he made contact a shiver went down her spine. 

“Are you okay?!” He asked in a panic.

“Huh? Wuh? No, I’m fine.”

“Oh… you just shook, I thought you were in pain.”

“Don’t, um… don’t worry about it.”

There was an awkward silence as he finished applying the potion. She was already feeling loads better now that she didn’t have to limit her movements with that arm. They both leaned back on the bench, taking slow and steady breaths as they tried to regain their strength. Adrien began digging into his pockets.

“What are you doing?”

“Well, we can at least spend the time keeping up with Alya and Nino, right? Plan our next move while we recover.”

She nodded, only to freeze as he scooted closer to her, so close that their thighs were touching. He held his phone between them as he opened the Ladyblog. As they started watching, Marinette slowly relaxed and even leaned into him a little. After all, Adrien or no, this was still her chaton. And they were going to get through this - no matter what.


	25. Pining

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Moving to the next fight, gathering what information they can - the war for Paris will be won with clever and careful actions.

Their footsteps echoed against the walls of the empty Parisian storm drains. Snake Noir had long since gotten used to the scent as their time below Paris passed the hour mark. Between today and their previous battles taking them down here, these winding tunnels were almost starting to feel familiar.

Just before they had headed out, Alya had recorded footage of another akuma. Or, more specifically, a set of three akumas. They looked like some cross between women and hawks, their yellow feathered wings keeping them aloft as they patrolled the skies of Paris. It wasn’t so much their strength that made them such a big issue. The problem was their excellent vision - which became obvious when they’d spotted the Ladyblogger.

A keening, screeching cry and suddenly every akuma and mind-controlled citizen in the area was descending on them. Alya had escaped, however barely. Nino… he’d gotten carried off, kicking and fighting, by one of the trio. There was no doubt that he’d be placed in front of one of the mind controlling akumas. Even now, he was probably just another mummy or knight or whatever else there was out there.

So while there was definitely some strategic sense in taking down the harpies, Snake Noir was going to be taking some satisfaction in their defeat.

“Any word on if that digital panther showed up again?”

Snake Noir shook his head before remembering she was walking ahead of him. “No, so Hawkmoth either hasn’t noticed-”

“Unlikely since it was one of his strongest.” She peaked around the corner of the intersection

“-or he can’t summon it again.”

“At least its not like Heroes’ Day,” Dragonbug murmured. “Remember when we’d cleanse the akuma, only for Dark Cupid to provoke them again?”

“Maybe he just doesn’t have Dark Cupid this time?”

“Maybe… but I think he’s reached some kind of limit.”

“What makes you think that?”

“The akuma and amok are strong, but it feels like they aren’t all that organized. And it looks like there aren’t any new akumas emerging.”

“So you think he gave up control in exchange power?”

“Something like that.” Dragonbug shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he found something that I missed in the Guardian notes, or maybe he’s been experimenting with the potions too.”

“Let’s go with the first idea for now.” He put a comforting hand on her back. “From what we’ve seen, he has just been stealing ideas and copying our potions. I don’t think he’s creative enough to make up things on his own.”

Dragonbug smirked. “I guess you’re right. And have you seen some of those akuma designs? Just hideous.”

Snake Noir chuckled. The conversation died out and silence moved in once again. The smile slowly faded off of his face as he watched her, saw the tension she held in her shoulders. Had it always been there while she was outside the suit? Had he never noticed? 

No wonder she was tense, though. Superheroics can be fun, but the responsibility is... heavy. Then add onto that eight months of being the Guardian, the one who had to brew potions with supplies that were always threatening to give out. No back up, only one person who could possibly help. And now, here they were. Skulking through the tunnels as Paris fell apart above them. 

There was nothing Snake Noir wanted more than to just take a few large steps forward, pull her into his arms and promise that everything was going to be okay. That they were going to face this together, that they were going to get out of this stronger than ever before. He wanted to promise that they’d be together forever, but now wasn’t the time for that.

All he could do right now was take as much weight off her shoulders as he could. To be the perfect partner that he knew she needed, that she _deserved_. She’d get them out of this, but it was his job to keep her going.

\-------------------

A notification on her yoyo made Dragonbug stop. 

“What is it?”

She glanced at her side, where Snake Noir was looming over her shoulder. She turned the screen toward him.

“Alya just posted an update on the Ladyblog. Looks like she has some more footage.”

There was no preamble, no words at all from Alya, despite Dragonbug knowing that she was behind the camera. It broke her heart, because she could imagine all too well what Alya was going through right now. After all, Dragonbug had lost Snake Noir enough to feel the pain of suddenly being on her own in a dangerous situation. Alya had to be devastated right now.

Shaking those thoughts away, Dragonbug focused on what she was seeing. 

The object being observed was distant, so all she could tell at first was some sort of giant ball floating in front of the Eiffel Tower. Its edge was ill-defined, as if it were slightly out of focus. It was only when it began moving and Hawkmoth’s voice emerged from it that she understand why that was.

Just like in their first battle ever, Hawkmoth had appeared before Paris in the form of his own head made up of moths. 

“Ladybug, Chat Noir. It is I, Hawkmoth. Your pathetic skulking around Paris is futile. Every moment you spend resisting the inevitable is another moment of terror in this city. You have no allies - _you_ made sure of that. And you have more enemies than you can possibly handle - _I_ have made sure of that. You might defeat a few akumas. But eventually, you _will_ fail. Why don’t you save Paris the trouble and give up now?”

The projection burst into a fluttering mass before vanishing. The video cut out a second later, leaving the two of them processing it in silence.

Lips pressed tight, eyes narrowed, Dragonbug started walking with determination. If Hawkmoth was trying to scare them, then that meant that he was worried. But just because she recognized that didn’t mean she hadn’t been unnerved by his declaration. 

In the end, the only reason she even kept walking was because not a second after she was moving, she heard the comforting sound of Snake Noir’s footsteps behind her. She could lead him anywhere, so long as he was willing to follow her anywhere. The fact that it was _Adrien_ doing the following just made her resolve even stronger. 

After all, they wouldn’t be able to be together until they beat Hawkmoth. The sooner that happened, the sooner they both got their happy ending. 


	26. Sacrifices

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snake Noir is stuck in a constant loop of failure. It's looking like there is only one option left for him...

Snake Noir beat his black feathered wings as he tried to stay ahead of the second harpy, but the third one grabbed him. Once again he watched Dragonbug get tackled out of the sky. Gritting his teeth, he turned back time again.

What iteration was it this time? He’d passed twenty a while ago. Forty, maybe? Fifty? It had been bitter progress, what little he could get of it. But at least he was making _some_ sort of progress. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t slipping into that same situation like with Desperada. But staying out of that fog of constant failure also meant he was very, very aware of how difficult this battle was. 

Maybe it was their choice of potions? Flight had seemed obvious at the time, but maybe they should have used their side miraculous for that. He glanced over at Dragonbug, with her fast-moving, shimmering insect wings, and her sleek helmet with yellow goggles and antenna. Maybe they would have been better off just luring the harpies into somewhere more confined.

A glance down at the growing hordes of brainwashed citizens and ground-based akuma made him reconsider. There was a reason he had activated Second Chance almost immediately after starting this fight. 

Then he heard Hawkmoth’s voice start up and his face set into an angry glare. Constantly having to hear this speech, over and over again, might be part of what was throwing Snake Noir off.

At first he could ignore it, even if hearing it was irritating. But as the iterations wore on and he had to listen to it more and more, Snake Noir had more time to really let the words sink in. And what he heard? It infuriated him.

It was all about how much Hawkmoth had sacrificed to get here. Money, people’s livelihoods, his bonds with people. And yet, there was so much more he was willing to sacrifice to get what he wanted. Such as Ladybug and Chat Noir - he was _very_ willing to sacrifice them if it meant getting their miraculous. 

Snake Noir’s eyes widened as he had a sudden realization. There was something he hadn’t tried yet, held back by the restraint and patience that the snake miraculous had taught him. He immediately reset to try this new plan.

Whereas before he held back, now he charged full force forward. He was in the middle of the harpies now, surrounded on all sides, fighting like a man possessed. But even as he threw punches and swung his staff, he was taking attacks. Claws and talons and body slams - he took it all without hesitation. He’d seen the alternatives. 

She was shouting something, but he couldn’t hear it over the screeching. But his plan was working and she had time to think - time to summon a lucky charm followed quickly by a pose that had become familiar over the months. He watched her careful and when her fists crackled with electricity, he dodged. The space now clear, her lightning arced between the harpies and they went plummeting to the ground. 

Dragonbug’s yoyo caught them all, which Chat was grateful for - he wasn’t sure he had the strength to do much rescuing right now. 


	27. Embrace

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette patches up Adrien after the last fight.

Snake Noir followed behind Dragonbug, a tense silence between them. There hadn’t been a choice - at least, none that he could find after so many tries. Anger briefly surged up inside him - wasn’t it her idea to keep his number of resets low? Neither of them wanted a repeat of his outing as Aspik, after all. 

Maybe that was unfair of him. Since they couldn’t activate the ladybug cure until all the akumas were defeated, he was left with a bunch of bruises and cuts - generally, he wasn’t doing too hot as he shambled after his lady in the tunnels below Paris. But in the maddening silence of their long walk back to a safe zone, Snake Noir had plenty of time to get stuck in his own head. 

It was only once they’d found another room to hide in and lock the door that she finally turned back to him. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but seeing her face kept in a painfully neutral expression as she called off her transformation and began digging around in her backpack… it hurt a lot more than if she had been outright angry with him.

That was when he saw it - the dim light in her eyes, the way her shoulders were hunched and drawn close around her, how stiff her actions were. She was hurting, even more so than she had been during this night of endless akumas. Should he say something?

“Marinette, I-”

“Detransform,” she interrupted with a command.

After he did so, he let her push him to the bench. She sat down next to him and started applying the healing potion to his various injuries. It turned out there were even more than he had thought. Was the suit weakening from overuse? Or were their enemies getting strong enough that their attacks could bruise him even through the invincible armor?

So soon after being banished, the silence returned. He waited patiently - she clearly had something that she needed to say, but she would say it in her own time. Thankfully, he didn’t have to wait _too_ long, even if it did still feel like an eternity. 

“I don’t want to keep seeing you do that.” Her voice was faint. If it hadn’t been the only noise in the room, he might not have heard it at all. 

“I know,” he said as he stared into the distance, feeling ashamed of himself for putting her through this.

“I’m serious.” She put a hand on his cheek and pushed his face toward her. “I know it sucks, I know it was a horrible position for you to be in. But we’ll find another way if we work together.”

“I’m sorry,” he said with a sigh. “I know that it upsets you and-”

“Adrien - _yes_ it does freak me out a lot, but that’s not the only thing!” Marinette’s voice got louder as her hands began waving around in her panic. “Look at you! You got hurt and I can’t do much about it besides rub magic lotion on it! I don’t know how effective it is - what if you had gotten hurt even worse? Would I have been able to heal you then too? What if you got blinked out of existence?” Wide eyed, she grabbed the water bottle filled with healing potion and waved it in his face. “How can I rub magic lotion on you if you get deleted from existence?!”

“I…” Adrien started, but he couldn’t find words. They’d been so used to being able to just immediately recover from things that he hadn’t even thought about if the stranger akumas had gotten a hold of him. After all, _he_ could just rewind time. 

She groaned and rested her head against his chest. “I’m sorry, I’m just… this is all getting to me.”

He wrapped his arms around her and realized she was shaking. Not much, but he could definitely feel her trembling under his hands. 

“I promise, I won’t let you feel that way again.”

After a moment, she returned the hug. “That’s going to be a hard promise to live up to, but… thanks.”

Adrien wasn’t sure how long they stayed like that, but eventually they returned to mending their wounds and recovering their strength. 

“So… where are we heading next?”

“Hm… let’s see what Alya’s discovered for us.” 

Marinette reached a hand into her bag and pulled out her cell phone. She scooted closer to Adrien, a little closer than she had to if she wanted to share the screen. But he could still feel her shaking slightly and knew that she needed some physical contact to calm down. Not that he minded being so close anyway.

“Well, Ladybloggers…” Alya’s voice, missing from the last few videos, had resurfaced. It was dull and strained, as if she’d taken some time to cry, but she was trying to maintain her usual up-beat tone. The screen was pure black. “It looks like the entire sixth arrondissement has gone dark - literally. It’s thick, black fog just hanging out down there. I’m sure what’s going on, but looks like there is only one way to find out.”

The screen moved and Adrien realized that she had just been particularly close to the fog. Once inside, he couldn’t see much of anything that was more than a couple meters ahead of where Alya was walking. She kept off the main road, following the line of buildings, but even then she frequently grumbled about nearly walking into things. 

Then all he could do was watch in horror as something attacked. The screen shook, the phone fell to the ground, and the video went dark - for real, this time.

He glanced at Marinette, watched as her expression of shock melted into one of steely determination. Suddenly, he understood where they were going next. 


	28. Confession

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A burst of good luck, being in the right place at the right time, and the entire war for Paris has changed in an instant.

Maybe it was because they had been dual wielding potions so much lately. Maybe it was just because they were becoming more intune with both of their miraculous. Whatever the reason, Dragonbug and Snake Noir had discovered that while they still couldn’t use both potions at the same time, they found it a lot easier to switch between powers. They didn’t even need to swap transformations to do it anymore.

Of course, that wasn’t incredibly helpful to Dragonbug at the moment since the powers she was switching between was true sight granted from Tikki drinking the pink potion and flight from Longg, but still. All it took was her landing somewhere and she could peer through the darkness to fight this shadowy akuma.

Perched on top of a lamp post while Snake Noir duelled the akuma, Dragonbug got a good look at their opponent. There wasn’t much to tell about it - stripped of all the darkness and shadow and subterfuge and it was just a person. Granted, one that could fly pretty well and seemed to have super strength, but a person nonetheless. 

Just about the only thing her true sight was having trouble getting through was the effects of the purple potion that Snake Noir had given to Sass. It was a strange choice on his part, or so she thought. But his idea to use it for scouting in conjunction with Second Chance was brilliant. Even with her partially seeing through it, it seemed to only weaken the effects - she could still see him, faded and blending into the background. Standing to get ready to jump, she aborted the attempt part way through when she heard a familiar voice echoing from above her. 

A glance up revealed Hawkmoth’s ugly head made of moths conjured once again. 

“Ladybug and Chat Noir. I know you can hear me… Every hand has turned against you. Family… _friends_ …” 

The way he said friends sent a wave of anger rushing over her. He must know that he’d taken out Nino and Alya - two of the former heroes of Paris. Even now, they were no doubt marching in the mindless hordes roaming the streets.

“Give in and Paris can be restored. Or continue this futile quest and you will see how powerful I have become.”

It happened in an instant. It was like seeing the full moon for a moment as it passed between storm clouds. As Hawkmoth laughed maniacally, Dragonbug saw through the protections his miraculous afforded him and saw the man underneath.

Gabriel Agreste. 

“Adrien…” She whispered to herself.

“Uh, my lady?” She glanced down to see Snake Noir’s cat ears twitch. “You about to help out or what?”

Suddenly, taking down yet another akuma, one of dozens, didn’t seem all that important any more. Not when the person inside would likely just be added to the mindless hordes and not when they could strike directly at the source of the threats. 

“Forget about the akuma! Pull back and regroup!”

\----------------

She had plenty of time to think about things as they returned to the sewers. A part of her wanted to not tell him at all. After all, he still loved his father, even after everything. This might very well break his heart. 

But then she realized - not telling him wasn’t going to change the fact that his father was moonlighting at the terror of Paris. 

“So… what’s this new information, my lady?” Snake Noir asked as he tilted his head at her. “I hope you aren’t planning on taking Hawkbutt up on his offer.”

She shook her head. “No, but seeing him appear is why we left.”

His nose scrunched up in confusion. “Why would-” His eyes widened. “The pink potion! Does that- did you find out his secret identity?!”

“...Yes.”

He rushed over and picked her up, twirling her in place in excitement. “That’s awesome news! Now we can go kick his butt directly!” His smile faded as he realized she wasn’t really sharing in his excitement. He gently set her down. “...What’s the matter? Shouldn’t you be thrilled too?”

“Adrien…” She said his name like it was an apology. “Hawkmoth is your father.”

Snake Noir backed up a couple steps, staring at her with wide, fearful eyes.

“I… no, that can’t-” He covered his face in his hands. “No. I can’t even deny it. This sounds _exactly_ like something he’d pull but…” 

She placed a comforting hand on his back and waited.

“He’s… he’s all I’ve got left though.”

“That’s not true,” she said, quietly but with conviction. “You have Plagg and Sass and Nino and… and you have me.”

He glanced at her, a weak but warm smile on his lips. “I’ve got you…” 

Taking a deep breath, he smacked himself in the face as if he were trying to wake himself up. “Okay, m’lady. What’s the plan to take out Hawkmoth himself?”


	29. Against the World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final battle. Dragonbug and Snake Noir versus Hawkmoth. The fate of Paris rests in the balance... but Hawkmoth was never one to fight fair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter sort of got away from me since there was a lot to cover and that's not even including the actual fight. It ended up at a whooping 5.3k words or so, head and shoulders above any other chapter. I hope you enjoy it! We're almost at the end of this story! :D

After using the purple potions to sneak across the city to the Agreste mansion, they realized that of all the combinations of potion colors left to them, there was really only one choice.

There would be no elemental showdown. No space for flight. No need for true sight. Tricks and evasion could only get them so far. No, what they needed was power - and as much of it as they could get. With that in mind, they fed Tikki, Plagg, Sass, and Longg the orange potion and felt their bodies thrum with the barely contained power of two heightened miraculous. 

“We’ll need to be careful,” Snake Noir said as he stared at his childhood home.

“Of course. We’re heading into Hawkmoth’s lair.”

“Not just that.” Snake Noir shook his head. “We’re breaking into Agreste Mansion. It has a lot of defenses. Defenses I had thought were meant to keep criminals out.”

“...But you think he might have always known it would end like this?”

“Maybe. He never liked taking risks or leaving things up to chance.” Snake Noir clenched his jaw and took a deep breath. “I don’t think we’ll have much of a problem. They probably don’t have it turned on to full because they’re waiting on me.”

“Right…” She put a comforting hand on his back. “Let’s get this over with.”

Snake Noir nodded and put a hand on his bracelet. “Just to be safe, though… Second Chance!”

She was about to jump across when Snake Noir caught her wrist. She turned back to see him standing there was a look of fury that took her aback.

“What? Chat, what’s wrong?!”

“The defenses,” he said through clenched teeth. “Are on max power and full alert.”

She blinked back at him in shock. “What- But doesn’t that mean-”

“If I had somehow managed to make it home, I would’ve been fried.” There was a dangerous look in Snake Noir’s eyes as he glared at the mansion. “I know how to get in now, though. Follow me.”

The specific route they took was a little roundabout. Running around the block that the mansion was on, breaking cameras along the outer wall - all in preparation for diving through the window above the front door. Both of them landed in superhero pose and quickly rose to their feet, Dragonbug immediately having her yoyo shield and her dragon sword drawn and ready to fight. She wasn’t sure what she expected to fight - maybe robot henchmen or something equally cliche - but only dead silence greeted them.

“Where to next?”

She looked toward her partner, but Snake Noir was storming up the stairs, baton drawn and ready in staff mode. The door he approached immediately had a metal plate slide shut over it, but he was undeterred. One swing from his staff saw the door shake and tremble in place. The second put a huge dent in it. The third put it hanging off its hinges. And the fourth one sent it flying.

Rushing in behind him, the first thing she noticed was a massive computer panel. It came as a shock to her because it definitely hadn’t been there the last couple times she’d been there. But then she noticed the scuff marks on the floor and the revealed button panel on the wall. That control center had been there the whole time, just kept hidden. How long had Gabriel Agreste been preparing for this?

Her racing mind distracted her from the professional-looking woman sitting in front of the computer bank. The look on her face quickly changed from startled to determined as she stood to fight off Snake Noir with her bare hands. Naturally, she didn’t get far, but not for the reasons Dragonbug had been expecting. Nathalie got to her feet and immediately clutched at her head before crumbling to the floor, the sudden movement enough to send her to her knees.

That was when Dragonbug noticed that her professional appearance was marred by an air of sickness and disheveledness. Strands of hair pulled free from her bun clung to the sweat on her unnaturally pale face. Her eyes were bloodshot and tired, with dark rings around them. And once she was on the floor, it looked like she wasn’t about to get up any time soon. 

Still, whatever her other qualities - misguided loyalty, neglect of Adrien - she was doggedly determined. Nathalie latched onto one of Snake Noir’s arms, attempting to pull him away from the computer system.

“No! We’ve come too far, you can’t stop us now!”

There was a strange cocktail of emotions on her partner’s face. Pity. Anger. Bitter sadness. Disgust. 

“It doesn’t matter!” Anger took the forefront as he shouted at her. “Can’t you see that it isn’t worth it?! We’re the only people not brainwashed in Paris!” Bitter sadness reared its head as he watched her struggle feebly in her sickness to tug on his arm. “At least, Dragonbug and I are.”

Nathalie’s face contorted into anger, a bizarre break from her usual cold expression. “I won’t let you take this away from Adrien! He will finally have his family whole again!”

For a moment she was worried that he was about to reveal his identity, so powerful was the look of dismay on his face. But it smoothed out into a cold, expressionless stare as he spoke one word.

“Cataclysm.”

A look of horror spread across both Nathalie and Dragonbug’s face as his clenched fist glowed with destructive energy. It seemed even more powerful than usual, wreathing his clawed gauntlet in black fire with a halo of green. 

But she didn’t need to worry - his claws raked the computer, causing it to spark and glitch disconcerting. The mansion’s lights flickered and went out. After a few moments, dim red lights activated in their place. The omnipresent hum of power that she had been ignoring since she had arrived was significantly quieter.

“That’ll be all the defenses systems except for the exterior metal plates over the windows and doors going out.” Snake Noir said, staring straight into Nathalie’s eyes. “As well as most of the lights.” 

Nathalie stared right back, suspicious and a little afraid. “How did you-”

“What can I say?” Snake Noir glared at her. “Cats get into all sorts of places and I suppose I’ve always been a bit of a snake.”

Dragonbug glanced worriedly between Snake Noir and Nathalie. “So… what are going to do about her? We can’t exactly turn her in to the police yet.”

Snake Noir shrugged. “Tie her up. The computer is thoroughly done for and she isn’t strong enough to break out of a paper bag right now.” He put word to action, tying her up as she failed to put up resistance. “No doubt because of the broken-” He froze and his eyes widened.

“...Chat? The broken what?”

Then it clicked.

“Wait. If _she_ doesn’t have the peacock miraculous… who does?”

“I don’t know,” Snake Noir said, shaking his head slowly. “I can’t think of anyone else he’d trust with something like that, or with any of this.”

“What makes you think you know anything about Gabriel?” Nathalie asked angrily, tugging at the rope.

Snake Noir glared at her before grabbing Dragonbug’s elbow and walking away. “Come on, my lady. Let’s go talk some place where _rude_ people won’t be eavesdropping on us.”

Once they were out in the hall, she asked him, “Where to next?”

He went down the stairs, eyes narrowed in thought. “I bet he has a secret lair somewhere in here. And he spends more time in his study than anywhere else in the house. We should start there.” He glanced back at her, a smirk on his lips but sorrow in his eyes. “Unless you think I should just cataclysm it all down and search through the ashes?” He flexed his claws.

“Chat…” They reached the bottom of the stairs and stood next to a door on the ground level. She put a hand on his cheek. “I know this is tearing you up inside. You don’t have to pretend it isn’t with me, okay?”

He sagged, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “I…” His hands went to his face as he groaned. “Later, okay? Once this is all done, I promise I’m going to fall to pieces. Can you pick me up after that?”

A flicker of a smile passed over her face. “I think I can manage it, yeah.”

He sighed in relief. “Good. Now, come on and I’ll show you what I know.”

The door was locked, but super strength alone was enough to bust it down, no cataclysm necessary there. A few tentative steps brought them inside the seat of Gabriel Agreste’s fashion empire. Her eyes scanned the walls where designs from all seasons were pinned in an orderly fashion. 

There were few personal, non-work related items inside, but one of them was the large portrait of Emilie Agreste behind his desk. Snake Noir had gone to stand in front of it. She had thought it was for sentimental reasons, but her partner’s mind was all business as he moved the painting aside to reveal a safe. He held out his hands as if presenting it to her.

“Tada! This is where I found the book of the Guardians.” Snake Noir stroked his chin. “Come to think of it, its probably still in there.”

“We’ll remember to grab it on our way out. It won’t fit in either of our pockets and I don’t want to carry it into a fight.” She stepped closer and started rifling through the desk. “So… any clue on where the button or lever or switch or whatever will be in here?”

Snake Noir shrugged. “None. Maybe a lucky charm will give us a hint?”

“Good thinking.” She cleared her throat and tossed her yoyo in the air. “Lucky Charm!”

A spotted paint brush fell into her open hand. 

“Hm…” Snake Noir hummed in thought. “Are we supposed to dust for fingerprints or something?”

“Good idea.” She smirked. “I can see I’m rubbing off on you. But I’m not sure that’s the right answer.” 

He snorted. “Yeah, okay. I can have good ideas all on my own you know. But anyway,” he glanced from the lucky charm to her. “What are _you_ thinking?” 

“Well, it’s supposed to be a hint, right?” She looked from the brush to the painting. “Maybe the safe is only a diversion.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Dragonbug closed the painting and brushed some powder onto it. A few buttons were revealed. “...Maybe we were both onto something. And there is more to this painting than just the safe.”

Snake Noir stood close behind her to look over her shoulder as she pressed the buttons. Her stomach dropped when the floor suddenly fell underneath her. Contrary to her immediate fears, it wasn’t a trap door - just a small elevator. 

“How deep down _is_ this lair?” Dragonbug muttered to herself. 

“No clue,” Snake Noir replied. With how tightly packed together they were, he couldn’t miss a word of what she was saying. 

After a minute or two of descent, the elevator finally emerged into a cavernous room. Somehow, plants were flourishing down here. Possibly because of the lights set up everywhere. It seemed that this area had a higher priority for the emergency generator than the mansion above did.

“What’s that over-” Snake Noir gasped and she struggled to see what he was looking at. It wasn’t long before she saw the capsule which seemed to hold a person inside it. Was Gabriel guilty of kidnapping on top of everything else? “That… that can’t be!’

She could feel his anxious energy as he wiggled in the confined space, eager to rush forward to confirm his suspicions. Whatever they were. From this distance, she couldn’t make out much besides a white outfit and blonde hair. A frown tugged at her lips. The blonde hair reminded her a lot of Adrien’s but…

Her eyes widened. “No…”

After a torturously long time, the elevator reached the bottom and the clear glass slided open noiselessly. She rushed out, if only to let Snake Noir make a dash for it. 

He made it about two thirds of the way there before he fell to his knees. She hurried to catch up and her heart sank when she confirmed her suspicions - it was indeed the missing (presumed dead) Emilie Agreste. Dragonbug barely spared her a thought before turning her attention back to Snake Noir. He wore a dumbfounded expression and she really couldn’t blame him. This day was only getting worse and worse for him. 

Who knew what other revelations awaited them down here?

“Hey,” she said as she crouched down next to him. “Do you need a minute?”

“How long… has she been down here the whole time? And why? Is this just some sick display for him, or is she still alive in there?”

“I don’t know, chaton,” she whispered, putting a hand on his back and resting her head on his shoulder. 

“I… what is _wrong_ with him?”

“Not sure about that either, but after today it won’t matter. He’s going down for good.”

There was a long moment as her partner stared at the ground in front of him, frustration on his face as he teetered on the edge. Eventually, he took a deep breath and stood up. 

“Come on. I’ll just add this to the reasons I’m going to break down later. For now, we have a mad man to catch and bring to justice.”

“I’m with you all the way,” she replied as she rose as well. “Let’s finish this.”

After spending a little while looking around, they found a tunnel that led deeper into the lair. Snake Noir took a step forward, before glancing back at Dragonbug, who was looking uncertain.

“What’s the problem?”

“I just… what if there is some secret door or something that we’re missing? Like this is just the diversion tunnel and the _real_ lair is somewhere else. Just like how he used the safe as a diversion.”

Snake Noir shrugged. “Maybe, but so what if it is? Then we’ll just come back here and look. With the defense system down, he’s just as blind as we are.” His eyes became sad. “Besides, you forgot about one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Mom is in that chamber,” he said, raising a claw toward the room they had just left. “If he put her out in the open like that, that means he never expected anyone to get this far. He might have some defenses, but I think we’re already much further than he ever intended for us to get.”

“I guess…” 

“Come on, we’ll end this like we always do.” He gave a shallow bow and gestured her toward the tunnel. “Lead the way, bugaboo.”

She smiled at him. “Only if you promise to stay close, chaton.”

“Always.”

It wasn’t long before they heard Hawkmoth’s voice coming from down the hall. No doubt he was sending commands to his akumas in the field. Or maybe he was projecting his voice in those terrible mothballs. Dragonbug smiled at her internal pun. Those mothballs were responsible for his downfall, so she supposed she should be a little grateful to them. 

Maybe he was actually talking to someone? Whoever he’d chosen to take on the peacock miraculous maybe. Who else could possibly be in the room?

She had her answer when the tunnel opened up into a cavernous space. Unlike the previous room, however, this was barren of any ornamentation except for a giant window with a butterfly logo and a swivel chair in the middle of the room. Glowing white butterflies fluttered throughout the space. The chair turned and she gritted her teeth when she saw Hawkmoth.

But he didn’t look like his usual self. His suit was indigo now, turning to a dark purple along its edges. At least, the edges she could see - a cloak with peacock eye patterns at its fringes cloaked his shoulders and hid much of his frame from view. He glared at them from a dark blue mask, his face twisted into a mad grin. 

“I was wondering when you would finally make your way here. I was beginning to think you would simply be crushed by the weight of numbers.” A hateful edge slipped into his voice, a harsh growl. “But I am glad I get to watch the both of you be destroyed in front of my very eyes!”

“You’re bluffing,” Dragonbug said with narrowed eyes. “How could you have possibly known we’d get here?”

“It all got too big for you to solve the old fashioned way.” His grip tightened on the cane he had propped up in front of him. He was far too relaxed in his chair for her liking - it was as if everything had gone according to plan. “Finding me was the easiest solution. Besides,” he added with a roll of his eyes. “Aren’t you known for being frustratingly clever? Put up against a hard enough place and you were bound to figure it out.”

“Then you should know that I’ll be able to take you out no sweat!” Dragonbug drew her sword and twirled her yoyo into a shield in one motion. She still didn’t step forward, suspecting some sort of trick. 

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I have more than enough protection.” Hawkmoth laughed maniacally. 

“I’ve had enough talking.” Snake Noir practically hissed it, his face contorted with anger coming to the surface all at once. “Let’s see you protect against _this!_ ”

Snake Noir rushed forward, staff swinging high as he aimed for his father’s head…

...Only to be blocked by a dark purple shield with bright blue lines on it dividing it into hexagons. Both of the heroes were rendered speechless when they realized that behind the all too familiar shield was a twisted and corrupt version of Carapace. 

The dark green of his armor had been replaced by purple, the bright green of his chest now the same pale blue that appeared on his shield. Along his hood, his old symbol had been replaced by the same peacock marking along the edges of Hawkmoth’s new cloak. His mask had grown and shifted, moving from covering his now-glowing red eyes to his mouth. 

And he was not alone. Four additional figures emerged from the darkness, forming a wall of bodies in front of Hawkmoth, with the akumatized Carapace at the center.

To his left was Rena Rouge and Ryuko. The former, for the most part, looked very similar to her usual self except that orange had been replaced with the same dark purple on Carapace and Hawkmoth, and the white was swapped for lavender. Her tail had grown into something more reminiscent of a tight gown that was open up to the knee in the front. Her gown also bore the mark of the peacock. Ryuko’s suit remained one color, the same to match the others. The serpentine dragon that adorned her body was replaced with a spread of peacock feathers.

To Carapace’s right was Queen Wasp and Viperion. Queen Wasp borrowed her akumatized form from the last time - the black suit with yellow stripes, the yellow-tinged skin, and coal black hair were all familiar to Dragonbug. The only difference was the dark purple that ran from her hands to her elbows, with the same peacock symbol on the back of her hands. 

Viperion had perhaps changed the most out of all of them. His suit now covered his head, much like it did when Adrien was Aspik. Except now it also connected to his shoulders, giving Viperion the look of a hooded cobra, an effect driven home by the yellow serpent eyes. When her eyes lingered on him, he hissed, revealing fangs and a forked tongue. Like all the others, his suit’s color had changed to dark purple and the symbol in the middle of his chest was that of a peacock eye. 

They each fell into a battle stance and watched the two heroes of Paris. It was a formidable sight, and Dragonbug was already struggling to figure out just how they’d manage to bring them down. 

“How did you even akumatize them like this?” Dragonbug said to buy time. “None of them have their miraculous!”

“Oh, a fact they know only all too well, I’m afraid. But surely you realize by now that with the power at my command, emulating the effects of the other miraculous is child’s play. I simply opened up their hearts and gave the anguish that lurked there a voice…” 

“And what about-”

Hawkmoth tapped his cane on the floor from the comfort of his seat. “Enough stalling. My miraculous champions - take your revenge on the ones who wronged you and _bring me their miraculous!_ ”

Dragonbug got a glance of Snake Noir facing down Viperion, Carapace, and Queen Wasp as the three fallen heroes barreled towards him before she found herself under attack by Ryuko and Rena Rouge. 

For once that day, Dragonbug was drawing on a blank on what to do. Maybe it was the heartbreak that was blinding her, the sight of the bitter disappointment in her friends’ eyes, but trying to come up with a plan right now was like trying to catch smoke. All she ended up with was empty hands. 

“My lady!” Snake Noir yelled whilst fighting in top form. Carapace and Queen Wasp were being left in the dust as Snake Noir and Viperion duelled to perfection. Did he already activate Second Chance? How many iterations had he already gone through? “We can still win this!” His staff snuck behind Carapace’s guard and tripped him. “Try calling a Lucky Charm - maybe that will give you a clue on how we can pull this off!”

“I’m going to need some space for that, chaton.” Dragonbug’s yoyo shield blocked a swing of Rena’s flute, and two dragon swords clashed in the air, sparks flying as the indestructible material collided.

“Sorry!” He side stepped Queen Wasp as she lunged for him. “My paws are busy over here.”

“You’re doing great,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll manage somehow.”

A glance at the red blade of her sword gave her inspiration. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled and unleashed the abilities of both the wind and water dragons. With them combined, she made a sudden and powerful hurricane force that sent her combatants reeling back. It wouldn’t be for long, so she seamlessly shifted her stance and mind to the powers of the Ladybug.

“No!” Hawkmoth yelled from his seat, fists clenched as he leaned forward. “Stop her, you fools!”

Queen Wasp tried to disengage to go after her while Ryuko and Rena Rouge picked themselves off the ground, but that only opened her up to getting slammed in the back by Snake Noir’s staff. 

“Lucky Charm!”

Something small and spotted landed in her hand and it took a moment of confused staring before she recognized it. Surprisingly, even when it wasn’t a Lucky Charm it was spotted - this was the charm that Alya usually had attached to her phone. Dragonbug glanced at the corrupted Rena Rouge. Realization struck.

“Chat! They’re still in there - and Hawkmoth’s control is weak! We can help them break free on their own!”

“Do you think it’ll work?” 

“Of course not!” Hawkmoth spat. “You have driven them too far away, bringing them ever closer to me. They will _never_ forgive you, no matter what you say!” His hateful eyes turned toward Queen Wasp. “And _you!_ Use your powers already!”

Immediately, Queen Wasp opened her top weapon. Instead of charging forward to possibly take it from her and close it, Snake Noir wisely backed off as the mind control wasps began pouring out.

“Oh no you don’t,” Dragonbug said as she first sent out a gust of wind to send Queen Wasp and her minions tumbling, followed swiftly by a sphere of rainwater that encompassed the battlefield. Rena Rouge, Ryuko, and Queen Wasp strode through it, but the wasps were trapped outside.

A rumbling to her right caused her to whip her head to the side, just in time to see Snake Noir pull back his claws and a section of wall collapse in a haze of black and green dust, pinning Viperion under some rubble. Despite how heavy the stones looked, it mostly just looked like he was annoyed by the situation rather than injured. 

Carapace rose to his feet as Hawkmoth ground his teeth in frustration. He held his hands in front of himself and pulled out a white feather. It slowly began to turn purple, but Dragonbug couldn’t do anything about it as Rena Rouge and Ryuko charged her. 

Something inside her told her she only had one more charge of wind and rain and was halfway through her lucky charms. Despite their gains, the heroes of Paris were the only ones with limitations on their powers, even with double miraculous and the orange potion helping even things out. In the end, time and simple numbers were working against them. Getting Rena Rouge to switch sides was looking more and more like their only winning option. 

The four remaining villains clashed with the two heroes and Dragonbug’s world narrowed down to just her versus Rena Rouge and Ryuko. She was thankful she had all that training from Chat Noir - Ryuko’s techniques weren’t all that different from his. And while she had plenty of experience fighting them, Ryuko had no such advantage against her. 

It wasn’t much of an edge, she’d be the first to admit. Ryuko was definitely the more experienced swordswoman of the two of them and, once again, it was only a matter of time before that advantage vanished. But for now, her yoyo shield blocked the dragon sword and snared it. With a twist of her wrist and a tug, she sent the sword flying across the room, only barely missing Hawkmoth. 

There was a moment of hesitation as Ryuko stood before her, unarmed, before backing up and running for her weapon. With how fast she could move, it wouldn’t be long before she was back. She couldn’t say a lot to Rena Rouge, but it would have to be powerful enough to wake her up.

What could she possibly say? What would break Rena Rouge free of Hawkmoth’s control?

Dragonbug’s eyes widened. What else but the truth would set her free?

"Alya!” she said she blocked the flute and held it there, their faces only a few centimeters apart. “Remember when I stole that cell phone? You helped me then. I need you to help me now."

A dumbfounded look crossed her face and Rena Rouge’s jaw dropped. There was a flicker in her eyes, the first sign of human emotion in her that Dragonbug had seen since this fight had started.

“But… you’re… Mar-!”

“Shh…” She replied, eyes glanced toward Hawkmoth, who was staring at them in shock. “Yes, it’s me. What do you say? Ready to turn Hawkmoth’s own powers against him?”

“Girl, I’ve been itching to do that ever since he first turned me into Lady Wifi.” Rena Rouge’s face settled into a grim mask of determination, a mirthless smile on her lips. She slammed her fist into her hand. “Let’s beat his ass.”

With a huge burden taken off of her, Dragonbug could take a larger view of the battle again. Just like she had with Rena Rouge, Snake Noir had managed to get Carapace on his own. With Queen Wasp groaning as she pulled herself to her feet and Viperion close to pulling himself free from the rubble, he didn’t have much time. But she did manage to overhear what he said. 

"Nino, bro - would your family want to see you this way?” There was a flicker of recognition behind his eyes. “Would Alya want to see you this way? She loves you man, you can’t disappoint her."

“Harsh, dude.” Carapace suddenly blinked, as if surprised that he’d said anything at all. He glanced down at his body, raised his arm and looked at it in shock. “Wait,” he looked back at Chat. “Bro?”

Snake Noir nodded. “Yeah, but we’ll get to that later. Wanna lend your best bro a helping fist?”

“Totally, dude.” Carapace’s jaw set, his eyes narrowed. “Time to call the old man out.”

“You fools, you are too late!” Hawkmoth let his feather drift up and it began to transform into a giant moth monster. “You will never-”

_BOOM_

_BOOM_

_BOOM_

A look of utter disbelief spread on Hawkmoth’s face as his amok fell to the floor in a charred heap, turning back into the black and purple magic that it was made from. With the odds shifting in their favor, Dragonbug could afford to be more liberal with her dragon powers. And three bolts of lightning she figured would be enough to take down anything - which it was. 

The downside was bits of the ceiling were coming down. Nothing too big yet, but…

Dragonbug decided to end this once and for all.

“Cover me!” She shouted to her teammates. With absolute trust in them, she made a mad dash for Hawkmoth himself.

Dread filled his features as she rapidly closed in. He raised an arm to protect himself and yelled out.

“To me you imbeciles!”

But Ryuko was being pressed to the wall by a furious assault by Rena Rouge, and neither Queen Wasp nor Viperion could so much as take a step forward without Carapace slamming his shield into them. 

Dragonbug’s fist slammed into Hawkmoth with enough forward that both villain and chair went tumbling backwards, dumping the terror of Paris onto the ground unceremoniously. She rushed him, but he was even quicker, swinging his cane at her. The blow was destined to collide with her head and she closed her eyes to brace for impact…

...which never came.

She opened her eyes to the sound of her partner letting out a single word in a hiss.

“Cataclysm.”

Hawkmoth’s only weapon - his last line of defense - crumbled to black ash in his hands as the Cataclysm poured down from where Snake Noir had gripped it at its head. 

He let out of the cane and tried to scramble backwards, but it was clear he didn’t have much strength left in him. This close, she could tell that the exhaustion Gabriel was feeling right now went bone deep. As he inelegantly tried to crawl away, his cloak parted in such a way that Dragonbug could see the glint of something crystalline attached to his suit shirt, normally concealed by the cloak. Her hand darted forward and she wrapped her fingers around the object, tearing it off of his suit.

The Butterfly miraculous was just like how it had been described in the Guardian books. At least for the moment it remained active in her hands before settling back into the inactive concealed mode. 

Hawkmoth’s merged transformation ended. She didn’t get much of a sense of Peacock Hawkmoth’s suit before Snake Noir spotted the peacock miraculous and took it from him. Then it too fell away, leaving just a sweaty, disheveled Gabriel Agreste in its place. 

There was a sound like a sigh stretching across the city. Dragonbug glanced around to see the five other transformations in the room suddenly drop as butterflies emerged only to immediately vanish. 

“Its… finally over,” Snake Noir said, voice wavering with emotion. She wasn’t sure if he meant this specific battle, the long day of fighting akumas, or the war against Hawkmoth. But no matter what he meant, he was right. 

“Now all we need to do is-” She was interrupted in reaching for the lucky charm in her pocket when the building rumbled and the ceiling began collapsing in earnest. Large chunks came free and were only narrowly missing them.

“Quick! Use the cure!”

She nodded and tossed the lucky charm in the air, even as the last remaining lights went dark and they were left in the pitch black. She could barely hear her own voice over the sound of falling rocks, hoping that the cure would be fast enough.

“Miraculous Ladybug!”


	30. Rooftop Dates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ladybug and Chat Noir raise a toast to the memory of their victory.

The sound of wine glasses clinking, far removed the hustle and bustle of the city below, was a welcome one. Neither of them were big on drinking alcohol, but if you couldn’t drink for an occasion like this, what could you?

Ladybug swished the wine that so red it matched her suit, staring into it as she contemplated. “Can you believe it’s been a whole year already?”

“With all the celebrations going on in the city, it was hard to forget.”

Their faces were suddenly lit up as another firework went off in the park. This one burst into green and silver - fitting since the one before it had been a vibrant red. 

“...But I get what you mean,” Chat Noir said, taking another sip of his wine. “It doesn’t feel all that long ago when everything was so different…”

“Akuma battles daily. Using two miraculous at once. The potions.” Ladybug held her glass with both hands and drank a little more.

“That too,” he conceded with a nod. “But I was thinking more about our civilian lives. Getting closer to this date reminded me of how different my home life was a year ago…” He looked at her and grinned. “And how different my romantic life was.”

She nudged him with her elbow. “See? You got the girl, I got the boy, and Paris could rest safe again.” There was a pause as she took another sip. “But seriously - how are you doing? I know the anniversary has to be rough for you. Especially since this is the first one.”

“It’s not as bad as I thought it’d be. I do wake up at night sometimes, from dreams where he never went off the deep end. Where Hawkmoth was someone else completely.”

Ladybug watched him, listening intently. Another departure from his life just over a year ago - having someone who really _truly_ cared about his feelings and how he was doing. 

“...But I think I’m starting to realize this was for the best. I don’t think it ever really _could_ have been anyone else.” He sighed and leaned back as his face was bathed in orange light. “Wow… we really were fighting akumas every day, weren’t we?”

“Yeah. It sucked.”

Chat laughed. “No doubt about that, buginette.” 

For a few long minutes they watched the fireworks going off. Green. Teal. Red. Yellow.

“Do you think Paris still needs superheroes?”

“People will _always_ need heroes. Super or not. There is still a lot of good we can do, even if we don’t have a supervillain to fight.”

“I’d love to raise money for charities.” Chat Noir smiled, his mind racing as he thought up ideas on how they could pull it off.

“Volunteer work too. Super strength is good for a lot of things outside punching baddies.”

“Assuming we can find the time between university classes.”

Ladybug blinked. “Oh wow, yeah, we’re graduating high school soon, aren’t we?”

“Mhm,” Chat hummed. “Next week, as a matter of fact.”

Ladybug scrunched up her nose. “Hawkmoth attacked during finals? As if we weren’t stressed enough!”

“That might have been part of the plan.” Chat rolled his eyes. “Father always did know how to twist the knife.”

She put her hand over his and he looked up at her soft, concerned eyes.

“Chaton… he’s never going to hurt anyone again. Especially not you. I promise.”

She leaned forward and pressed a tender kiss to his cheek. As they scooted closer and one kiss gave way to more, his worries fell away, pushed aside by the love that he felt for her. With her by his side, he knew that she was speaking nothing less than the absolute truth.

They had finally made it. 

Life could go on, at long last.


	31. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien returns home.

It was done. The last thing they’d ever have to do in their high school career was now behind them. Marinette and Adrien stepped outside their school for the last time, glancing back only briefly before turning to each other.

“I’m going to head home. Do you want to come with me?” Adrien adjusted his grip nervously on his satchel, bringing a smile to Marinette’s face. Even after a year of dating he got a little jittery taking her home with him. Although all they ever did was kiss or play video games.

Marinette felt her heart flutter. Maybe she wasn’t so above it all either.

“I’d like that. I’ve been meaning to stop in and say hi to you guys anyway.” She grabbed his hand and started walking in that direction. “No better time than the present, right?”

In the immediate aftermath of Hawkmoth’s reveal to the general public, Adrien had needed the Gorilla more than ever. Some people couldn’t keep their anger confined to just Gabriel, after all. Every day, the mountain of a man would be waiting for him after class or shadowing him every moment he spent outside. 

But those days were passed and the Gorilla was enjoying a hard-earned vacation in the Swiss Alps. A brief image of the Gorilla wearing a yeti costume and scaring people skiing on the mountains brought a smile to Marinette’s face. If anyone deserved a chance to unwind, it would be him, whatever he chose to spend his vacation time doing. 

All that to say that they needed to take the bus to get to Adrien’s home. 

It wasn’t the mansion that he’d grown up in. There were too many painful memories for both of them to just keep living there. Which is why they got a smaller place, still nice as befits the last of the Agrestes, but more cozy. Warmer and kinder, something much more fitting for Adrien.

They opened the door and heard a soft humming coming from the living room. 

“Mom?” Adrien called. “I’m home!”

Emilie wheeled into the entryway, pushed by her physical therapist. Her time in the stasis pod had kept her alive, however barely, but it came at the cost of severely weakened muscles. It would be a while yet before she could walk again, but judging from the brilliant smile on her face as she saw her son, she didn’t seem too worried about it. 

“Hello, sweetheart.” She leaned up a bit to cradle her son’s face as she kissed his cheek. “How was your last day of classes?”

As Adrien filled her in, Marinette allowed herself to feel proud for her part in this. Maybe it was something more than luck that had helped her create the ladybug cure potion - after some slight modification to it, a regular dosage of the potion proved more than match for the corruption that had leached into the unfortunate wielders of the Peacock miraculous.

Now Emilie was given a second chance at life, after the mistakes of her youth. 

Marinette still felt like there was something more to Emilie’s story than what she’d let on. From the way she’d told it, she and Gabriel had found the miraculous by chance. When they realized what they could do, they had the time of their lives essentially playing with them. Leaping across the city, running over rooftops - not much different from what Ladybug and Chat Noir did on their less productive patrols, Marinette would admit. 

But then… they had discovered much too late that something was wrong with the Peacock. 

“Any news about father?”

Marinette was pulled out of her head at the mention of Gabriel. 

“His trial date has been set,” Emilie said, her face set into a mask of determination. “I’ve been talking with our lawyers and they suspect that both him and Nathalie will be getting over a hundred years each.”

“And what about-”

“The divorce is coming along fine too, dear.” Emilie sighed. “I wish it hadn’t come to this but… after all he’s done, I can’t forgive him. I’d rather he had let me pass than bring so much suffering on everyone.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it. I’ve always known he was a single-minded man, but…”

“Well, no matter what, we’re glad to have you back, Emilie,” Marinette said with a small smile. “I’m glad to know Adrien has someone looking out for him now.”

“I could say the same to you, Marinette,” Emilie said, smirking. Her therapist cleared her throat behind Emilie. “Sorry, dears. I’ve been putting off my exercises until you two got home. Don’t let me keep you any longer.”

They said their goodbyes and headed upstairs to Adrien’s room.

Adrien set his bag on his bed, Plagg floating out of it to no doubt search for food. 

“So what’s Nino’s plans now?”

“Well, he’s already got something lined up with Jagged Stone.” Adrien stretched before collapsing onto the couch. “Probably something like working with his record studio, plus some gigs around Paris.” 

“I’m sure Wayzz will like the new perspective, at least.” Marinette sat on his legs and turned on the television.

“After all those years of hiding with Master Fu, I’m sure it’ll be a great change of pace.” He took her hand and ran his thumb across her knuckles. “What about Alya?”

“Well, there are a bunch of universities and news outlets clamoring for the Ladyblogger, so she’s kind of been drowning in options lately.”

“A great problem to have.”

“Oh definitely. Trixx has been loving the excitement - he was the most broken up about the separation, so now that they’re reunited he’s been over the moon.”

“Do you think we made the right call?” Adrien frowned, worry marring his face. “After all, Fu kept the miraculous out of circulation at all costs…”

“His need for secrecy meant that most of the kwami lost touch with the world they were meant to protect.” Marinette kept still as Adrien moved under her so he could sit up, keeping her on his lap all the while. “Besides, if another big threat comes up, we want experienced chosen.”

“Not to mention it makes everyone a little happier.”

Marinette smiled. “I think we all deserve a happy ending, don’t we?”

“True,” Adrien said, his arms wrapping around her waist. “But this is only just the beginning, isn’t it?”

She turned her head and looked behind her to give Adrien a kiss.

“You’re right about that, chaton. And I’m glad I get to have this beginning with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And that concludes not only Two For Two, but the Love Square months for this year! It has been a long journey, but we've finally made it to the other side. I hope that you enjoyed my piece for Ladynoir July even half as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> As some of you may be aware, I had been intending to participate in Adrien Aug-reste to round out six months of daily prompts, but I've made the decision to not do the entire month. Instead, I'll be writing a single one shot for each week. The first one will likely come out next Friday, so keep an eye out for that! 
> 
> Once again, thank you for reading! I hope that if you enjoyed this story, you'll look at some of my other works.


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